Chasing Molly
by ll Cele ll
Summary: Follow the antics of Molly, the renowned farmer of Harmonica town, as she tries to deal with her liking for a certain blonde haired chef. And what love story would be complete without the intervation of best friends? Sucky summary, better story. Hopefuly.
1. Chapter 1

Mhmm. This is labelled as humour, but only slightly, probably. Depends on the sense of humour which you have yourself. xD Anyhow. I have no idea how long this will be, and have no idea what is going to happen. I've never wrote a multi-chap fic where the chapters actually follow on from each other before, so this could get pretty bad. :c But! Regardless of that piece of information, please try and enjoy!

* * *

><p>As the sun began to set over a now peaceful and thriving Harmonica Town, an exhausted Molly wiped her brow with the (notably exceedingly dirty) sleeve of her shirt as she finished up the days chores around the ranch. Standing up, she gazed up at the sky which was beginning to become speckled with tiny spots of silver and gold, and smiled as she instantly knew what time it was. For farmers, it was important to be able to tell the time through the environment alone, and Molly was no exception.<br>The sky at this very time signalled to her that it was almost 8pm, the perfect time to go make her twice a week visit to the Brass bar, just to relax and take the strain off her daily life. Not just to go see the handsome chef who worked there. Nope, not for that at all.

He also wasn't the reason why Molly felt the need to go inside and to change her dirty clothes and wash before she went out.

"What a jerk, always making me change my clothes and wash and whatnot, when I could easily get away without doing any of those things." Came Molly's usual response as she trudged her way over to the Brass Bar, a short walk, but also a cold one since the night air was become chilly quickly during the mid fall evenings.

Shivering, she arrived at the entrance to the bar, and quickly pulled the door open in order to seek warmth.

"..."

Boy did she pick a great night to 'relax'.

Upon entering the bar and quickly closing the door behind her, Molly was greeted with the pleasant sight of a drunk best friend standing on the table-tops, singing her own rendition of 'Wuthering Heights'.

"Kathy, what the hell!" Shouted a half shocked and taken aback Molly - Shocked because the waitress should off been working, not shocked because she was drunk.

"O-ohhhhh Mollyyyy~!" Slurred the clumsy girl as she learnt forward, with the idea that Molly would be able to hear her better. "I got t-the night off...isn't dat greaaaaate?"

"Yeah brilliant, especially when you're in this state." Thought the more sensible farmer girl as she helped her friend down of the table. "You better get down before you hurt yourself."

"Awww Mol!" Wrapping her arm around her best friend, Kathy proceeded to give Molly a kiss on the cheek. "Your such a great friend ya know!"

"You too, Kath, you too." She simply replied with a sigh.

"You better not be doing that now Kathy! Her _boyfriend_ will get angry with you!" Came a familiar voice from a couple of tables across.

"Oh Goddess, your drunk too, Luke? " Molly said disbelievingly, practically throwing Kathy down in a chair in order to try and ignore the 'boyfriend' comment.

"Nah." Holding up his glass of orange juice as proof he continued; "Just saying the truth!"

"Ohhh, he's right Molly, sorry...I shouldn't have done that, now Chase will be getting angry at me!"

"WHAT? Kathy, you're my best friend, and even in a drunk state you'd still remember the fact that I don't actually have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, but all your friends know that you want Chase to be your boyfriend!" Luke, who happened to be Molly's other best friend, decided to input from across the room.

"LUKE" the girl in question squealed uncontrollably, earning the attention of many of the other people who were also in the bar, including a certain strawberry blonde haired chef, who poked his head out from the kitchen to see what all of the commotion was about.

"Luke, if your harassing the girls again I swear..." the chef began, before focusing his attention on Molly, who just blushed out of embarrassment and anger.

"Oh Molly, you could have said that you'd came in! I wouldn't have guessed it was you from that squeal of yours, considering you're normally so manly. You know, being a farmer and all."

"E...Excuse me?"

"CHASE GET BACK INTO THE KICTHEN AND STOP TORMENTING THE CUSTOMERS AGAIN."

"Hehe, sorry, better be going." The man in question replied with a wink, before heading back to his work before Hayden tried to get angry with him.

For a few minutes Molly just stood staring at the place in which Chase had previously stood, before being brought back into reality through Luke snapping his fingers in front of her face.  
>With a sigh, she pulled up a chair opposite Luke, and next to Kathy. The latter of which proceeded to hug Molly to comfort her. Even in a drunken state Kathy was still aware of when her best friend was upset or angry, and was always there to try and fix that.<p>

"Ahhh, he's such an ass!" Luke stated as he leaned back in his chair, his male attempt at trying to comfort Molly. Because, let's face it, male best friends have never been the best with relationship problems.

"You can say that again." Molly mumbled, placing her order with one of the temporary waitress's during Kathy's night off.

"He's an ass."

"Thanks, Luke, thanks."

"Ehh...seriously though. You like him, he likes you, why are always so stupid around each other?"

"That's exactly it, Luke! Chase doesn't like me, which is why he always teases me and...and..." Molly trailed off, taking in what the man had actually just said. "Wait, how did you come to the conclusion that he likes me too?"

"Because us guys are the same as you girls are when it comes to noticing things." Noticing the confused look on Molly's face, he sighed then tried to explain further. "So for example, we all know that Chase can be a bit of an ass at the best of times, but we also know he only _teases_ people, when he's shy or doesn't know what to say. "

"Are you being serious?"

"Why would I lie to you Molly! Cor, you never believe me and we're best friends." Shaking his head, Luke adverted his attention to a dancing Selena to give Molly some time to let those words sink in.

For a few minutes the table remained silent, until Kathy decided to break the silence at the worst time possible. And with the worst _words_ possible as well.

"Yeah...but even if that is true Luke, there is still that Maya girl to deal with. We all know she's had a thing for Chase since we don't even know when."

Standing up and grabbing his axe instinctively, Luke raised his arms and cried out; "Ahhh crap I forgot about that stupid-"

"For the love of the Goddess Luke, will you put that thing away!"

Stopping mid rant and turning around, Luke came face to face with a rather pissed off looking Chase, who apparently, had only just avoided the axe which Luke had swung above his head in his rage.

"Sorry bro." He merely said sitting down again, as Chase served him and Molly their ordered drinks.

"Thank you." Molly nervously said as she picked up her drink, worried that Chase had over-heard what the trio were previously talking about. Or worse – Kathy decided to open her big mouth once again.  
>Luckily for her, Kathy was too involved with her new drink to say anything, and the only words which Chase muttered as he walked back to the kitchen were something along the lines off 'I don't even know why you bring that axe everywhere you go', which had to be directed at Luke.<p>

"...What's his problem?"

Slamming her face to the table, Molly just let out a irritated groan at Kathy's oblivious comment.

"This is going to be a long night..." she groaned unhappily, whilst taking her drink out of Kathy's hands for the fourth time that minute.

* * *

><p>Okay, this was going to be longer, but I think it's better to end the chapter here, and then just continue in the next one. xD<p>

So...what did you think? Good? Bad? Ugly? Trying too hard? My sense of humour is pretty dry at the best of times, so it probably won't appeal to the majority of you. :c

Reviews will be loved! It lets me know if what you want to read. ;


	2. Chapter 2

I think that I'm enjoying writing this a little too much. xD Anyways, this chapter is where the T rating comes into play-due to slight cursing, and very VERY small innuendos.

But don't let that put you off! I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

><p>As the Brass Bar's closing time drew nearer, the building slowly began to empty and become quieter, the only real shouts were that of the customers saying their thanks and wishing the staff well before they took their leave.<p>

That, and the constant talking of Kathy and Luke.

"Yeah...YEAH. I know exactly what you mean." Luke pretended to understand, as Kathy continued to tell him about her supernatural experiences involving Molly's chickens and her own alcohol.

"Luke seriously. Just why do you entertain her when she's like this? When she wakes up in the morning and is starting to recover from her hangover she's going to remember various bits of this conversation. Not that I care, but it's going to take ALOT of explaining on my part about how she managed to talk about that stuff in the first place."

The blue haired 'idiot' as Molly liked to describe him merely shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Lighten up Mol! She's having fun, I'm sure as hell having fun, and so should YOU."

"How can I have fun when I'm having to babysit you two all of the time?"

Sticking his tongue out in a childish response (Thus just adding to Molly's implication of him being a baby) he coolly stated; "Your just in a sour mood because your _Chasey_ was mean to you earlier."

"For the last time Luke, he is not MINE, and I'm certainly not put in a bad mood by him of all people!" Standing up and grabbing her bag, Molly said quite loudly her response to Luke. A little _too_ loudly.

"Why do you guys have to be so loud?" An annoyed Hayden stuck his head of the entrance to the kitchen before continuing; "It's about closing time anyways, ya'll should be thinking about heading home." Returning to his position in the kitchen, Molly started to panic.

"Crap..." she thought, if Hayden heard that, then that means...that means HE must have heard it as well!"

Deciding upon not wanting to wait for the possible explanations and answers she would have to give to Chase to explain what she had just said, she hauled Kathy up out of the chair and promptly exclaimed to Luke their departure.

"Sorry Luke, but we should be getting home! I can't exactly let Kathy walk home by herself anyways, she'd probably end up in some random person's house along the way hahaha. Wouldn't want that now, would we?" A flustered Molly laughed whilst putting Kathy's arm around her shoulders for support. Not knowing what was going on, she just laughed along with her best friend as well.

"Yeah, especially if it was C-"

Luke was cut off by Molly putting an abrupt hand over his mouth, along with saying the simple word of 'Don't'. Luke still found it hard to believe that someone as cute and gentle as Molly could even utter a word as threateningly as she did then.

Nodding and smiling in response, Luke got up and grabbed his trusty axe, before opening the door for the two ladies.

"Have a nice evening! Make sure Kathy gets home just fine." He called after the two, earning a wave from Molly in response.

Just about to head out himself, Luke was stopped by a familiar voice.

"Hey Luke?"

"What is it Chase? I'm about to go home, you don't need to throw me out like last time."

"Why do you always act like I'm such a bad guy?" Sighing, Chase decided that it was best to just not argue. " Just come over here will ya, I need your help with something."

Wandering over, Luke wandered what Chase could possible want his help for. For one, he was a terrible cook himself, and two, whenever he decided to be useful and help do with the washing up, something always seemed to break.

"Whassup? Don't tell me you're in THAT much of a desperate state that you need my help." The blue haired man said with a smirk, as he positioned himself atop the counter to the bar in order to gain a view of the man who he was speaking too.

"Of course not, I just wanted to talk to you." Said the chef coolly in response, standing over a stove carefully cooking something for one of the few remaining customers left.

"Go figure. Well then shoot, what is it?"

"What does Molly really think of me?"

"I don't know, what do you think of her?"

"Don't be an ass and just answer my question."

"Well, why do you want to know?"

...

And so the argument between the too stubborn men continued for a while, neither one of them seeming to get the response which they were really looking for.

"Just tell me why you want to know, and then I'll tell you what she thinks of you."

"Ugh...just forget it, I'll ask Kathy when she's not drunk. That girl can't keep a secret however hard she tries." Upon realising that that it was useless trying to extract information from the awkward Luke, Chase reverted his attention back to his cooking.

In reality, he should have really expected the reply from Luke, and also in reality, should have formed a response to that. But for some reason when it came to matters involving Molly, all the thoughts in Chase's head became fuzzy.

"She's just too damn cute for her own good...and kind...and cute...and adorable...and nice...and strong...and cute..." The normally arrogant man found his way into his own little world, his thoughts trailing off into that of Molly and all her redeeming factors. Wait, did he mention that she was cute?

_-A few moments later-_

"Chase."

"..."

"Chase."

"..."

"CHASE!"

"What?" A annoyed Chase snapped himself out of his daydream, clearly frustrated that Luke had to interrupt his enjoyable visions of Molly.

"Your apron is on fire."

"Wha-SHIT!"

Apparently Chase had been so caught up in his daydreaming about Molly, that he had neglected the fact that his signature apron was hanging precariously close to an open grill just below the stove.  
>For once, Luke tried to do good and gain the man's attention before it was too late, but unfortunately for him it was just too hard to snap him out of it in time. Now panicking, Chase quickly ran out of the bar and outside, in order to not let the tables or counters inside the bar catch fire as well.<p>

"STOP DROP AND ROLL MAN!"

"Are you sure you don't remember where you put your key, Kathy?"

"Nah, I swear it was in my pocket but it doesn't seem to be anymore."

"Have you even checked in your pocket yet?"

"...No."

With what seemed to be the thousandth sigh that night, Molly fished into Kathy's skirt pocket, eventually pulling out said key. (Not before checking that no one was looking first however, it wouldn't be good to cause_ that_ sort of gossip within the close-knit community.)

"Well that was easy." Molly said triumphantly, holding up the key to Kathy's face.

"Ohh, you're a life saver Molly, now unlock it!"

With a frown which soon turned into a smile upon noticing just how ridiculous Kathy really was when she was drunk however, Molly proceeded to unlock the door to Kathy's house.

Well, she would if she could see where the keyhole was that is.

It was around 11:30pm when the trio finally made their exit from the Bar, and by then the street lamps were off, the only light source being the stars and the moon which were high in the night sky - and even then this was only minimal.

"Shit Kathy, have you got a light?"

"What do you think?"

With a groan, Molly bent forward as far as she could in order to try and find where the keyhole was. This plan still failed however, and after several minutes of random jabbing, Molly frustratingly gave in.

"I CAN'T GET IT IN THE DAMN HOLE." She cried out in annoyance, earning a startled look from Kathy.

Immediately noticing her Mistake, Molly threw her hand to her face, the contact emitting a nice 'smack' sound. She had certainly had enough of this night.

"Here, you do it instead. It is your house after all." She mumbled upon handing the key to Kathy, making preparations in her head about the inevitable outcome of sleeping outside for the night.

'_Click'_

Whipping her head around, Molly could only let out a small whispering of "You have got to be kidding me."

"Wooo! I did it Mol! Now, what do I win?"

Pushing her drunkard best friend into her house, Molly decided that not saying anything would be the best option for now. She should have just let Kathy open the door to begin with, she thought. She's probably had to do that many times before anyways.

"Where's the light switch Molly?"

"Don't worry about that, just get into bed."

"Wooow, you're sure a forceful one, aren't ya heeey?" Kathy said with a wink, before turning and stripping of her clothes.

"Sure thing, you know that I just can't resist you Kathy."

Waiting for her best friend to finish, Molly actually smiled for one of the rare occasions that evening. Somehow, as ditzy as she could be, Kathy always knew how to make her feel better. Whether this was subconscious or not Molly didn't know. But what she did know was that she was incredibly thankful for having the girl there with her.

"Molly...?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you stay here tonight? I don't fancy having to do everything in the morning."

The smile once again turning into a frown, Molly added on to her previous thoughts.

"As thankful as I am...I wish that you weren't so lazy."

"That's why you love me thooough." Kathy randomly stated, almost as if she could read the other girl's thoughts.

With a giggle, Molly slid into the bed alongside Kathy-they had done this many times now, and were no longer embarrassed around each other because of their closeness.

"Molly...?"

"What now? You need to go to sleep."

"When we were at the bar...you never denied that you liked Chase, you know."

Thankful that the darkness of the room was hiding her blush, Molly stammered whilst trying to find the right words to say.

"W...Well...you know that I've always thought he was kinda cute Kathy, I told you that myself."

"Yes...but you never told me that you actually liked him."

"Well...that was b-because I wasn't sure at the time...I was going to tell you tonight, actually. But then I found you in this state and..." laughing, Molly moved closer to hug the figure next to her.

"I promise that I'll explain everything to you in the morning, when you're a bit more...focused, you know?"

"Hehe...Okay, but you better explain everything Missy!"

"Oh I promise...I love you Kathy, I hope you know."

"Of course I know silly! And I love you too. Tonight kinda proves one of the many reasons why."

"Aww, you're so charming with your 'many reasons'...Goodnight, Kath."

"Goodnight Mol."

And with that the one of the two girls almost instantly feel asleep, whilst the other lay on her side for a while, thinking about how she was going to explain everything to the sleeping form beside her in the morning.

Little did she know however, that that was going to be the least of her problems. Getting back into his house, a certain man looked through the great photographs of 'gossip' which he had just taken.

Boy did he love his hobby.

* * *

><p>Wooo, I don't think I've ever written anything this long before. xD<p>

I apologise now if some of the typing is weirdly spaced, my laptop can be a tard when it wants to be.

Anyways...like usual I hope you enjoyed it, and reviews are enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you all so much for the kind reviews so far! They mean a lot to me pahaha.

Anyways, I wasn't too pleased with how this chapter turned out, really. I had several possibilities of how to write it in my head, and I kept changing my mind every few seconds. :

I also just want to apologise for what seems like the lack of romance at the moment, but do not fret! That will be coming in later chapters...

Ohcrap I just realised I haven't been putting a disclaimer: I DON'T OWN HARVEST MOON IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM OKAY? Mhmm, now, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

><p>"Ugghh..."<p>

"Why do you drink so much, Kathy?"

"Because it feels good."

"Well, your obviously not feeling very good right now."

Molly had been enjoying the morning so far-having an opportunity to tease Kathy without the risk of getting physically attacked by her always made for a fun start to the day.

"Why can't you just be sympathetic for once?" Said girl groaned as Molly put down a glass of water beside her, along with some hangover tablets.

"Because it's your own fault...you could have easily stopped, but instead you decided to drink half of the bar's alcohol stock, _including_ mine and Luke's drinks."

Sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck, Kathy gave a guilty smile before downing the small pills. "Yeah, well...you know that it's just part of my...my...my character! Yeah that's it."

"Whatever." Was all Molly said in reply, before walking over to the kitchen in order to prepare some breakfast for the two.

"Hungry?"

"Do you run a ranch?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Whoever marries you will be a lucky man Molly! Man, your cooking is just too good!" a satisfied Kathy leant back in her chair as she finished the last of the omelette and pancakes which Molly had quickly whipped up.

"Yeah, well...I don't know." With a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks, Molly pushed around the remaining scraps of food on her plate.

"But...will a man really want to marry someone as plain as me?" She modestly thought to herself. "All I can do is farm and cook."

"Ahem."

"Oh! Sorry Kathy, I'll go wash these up for you right away!"

Before she could even grab the dishes, Kathy grabbed Molly's wrist and pulled her down again.

"Nu-uh, not until you explain everything to me just like you promised last night!"

Now turning a satisfying beetroot colour, all Molly could do was squirm around for a bit to stall time-she wasn't stupid, she knew Kathy wasn't going to let go of her anytime soon. But...she needed some time to think of what to there was to actually _explain_.

"Come on, lemme help you out." Again, it was almost like she was reading her thoughts, but this time, in a less helpful way.

"When did you start liking him?"

"KATHY WHY DO WE NEED TO DICUSS THIS?" an already flustered Molly squealed - the same squeal which had defined her from being a man earlier on in fact-the thought of this, however, just made the young girl squeal even more.

With a sigh, Kathy loosened her grip on Molly's wrist. "Because, Mol, I'm your _best friend _remember? I need to know these things in order to be able to help you. Remember how you helped me with Owen that time? We weren't even properly close friends like we are now back then, and yet you still helped me out anyways. So let me do the same for once okay?"

She had a point.

"O...okay then..."

With a smile, Kathy stood up and made her way over to Molly, whisking her away into the living room.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Oh...OH OH MOLLY THAT IS SOOOO CUTE! YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME BEFORE~"

"Well...w-well if you don't s...stop suffocating me... we won't be able to see the...the results of me telling you will we?"

"Oh yeah, sorry." Letting go off her friend, Kathy sat and took in what she had just said.

"It's so adorable..." she thought, " How oblivious they both are...yet, they have to find that out themselves."

Noticing the 'serious' air which was now beginning to surround Kathy, Molly thought that this would be a good time to escape.

"Well!" She stated a bit too happily, " I need to get back to the farm, my animals will be getting angry at me for not feeding them."

"Again?"

Lightly Punching Kathy on the arm for the previous remark, she quickly made her way out of the door, quickly calling behind her however.

"Oh, Kathy, don't try to do or think much today, you might hurt yourself."

"Tha-"

"But then again, you'd hurt yourself doing that on a normal day."

"Molly! Just get outta here you dope." Throwing a cushion from the couch at the girl just leaving the house, all Kathy could do was smile and sigh.

"She's such an idiot sometimes...in more way than one."

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hehe...you all happy today?"

Going around her chicken coop, the last round on her daily chores, Molly took the time to talk to each of her chickens individually, making sure that they were all healthy and happy.  
>The squawking she got in reply seemed to be them showing their appreciation for her never failing daily gesture.<p>

But then again Molly knew better – they just wanted feeding.  
>Seeing to their demands, the farmer went straight over to their feed dispenser, only to realise that she hadn't stocked up on more food.<p>

"Shoot, we're all out..." she muttered to herself before glancing at her watch. "4:40. Just enough time to go and buy some more from the Horn Ranch."

Mentally kicking herself for forgetting to buy some more feed a few days ago, Molly quickly made her way over to the ranch before their shops closing time.

What greeted her however, wasn't what she expected.

Slowing down her pace as she reached the specified building, Molly walked past a blushing Renee, Anissa and Luna, who appeared to be giggling at something in Luna's hands...something which seemed to be a picture. Or, more specifically, a _photograph._

"Oh! Molly!" Renee was the first to see her, quickly warning Luna with her greeting to put the picture away.

"Hey...what was that? You never have anything to hide."

"Umm..."

"Oh, it was just some picture of a hot celebrity!" Luna intervened, not trusting Renee or Anissa to find a believable excuse for what they were looking at. " Not anything that you'd be interested in, since we know you're not into that stuff."

Giving her a cute, 'we-weren't-doing-anything-wrong- kind of look, Luna just proceeded to stare at Molly until she finally gave in.

"Riiiight..." she eventually stated, still not entirely believing the girl.

Remembering her previous task however , Molly turned her back on the trio and when inside the ranch store to complete her more important task.

"Thank you, Hanna"

"It's no problem! Have a nice day."

"You too." Waving back at the kind woman, Molly was almost out of the door before the woman called after her again.

"Oh Molly, just be careful with what your doing from now on."

Confised, Molly turned around to face the woman. " Huh, why? Careful with what?"

"Well..." Hanna began, but suddenly feeling slightly awkward, decided not to tell the oblivious young girl standing in front of her the whole story. "Just...you know how sneaky Simon is. He'll take pictures when you least want him too."

Still seeming confused, Molly racked her brain for an instance in which Simon could have taken a photo of her. Seeming lost for a few minutes, it finally hit her.

"Oh Goddess he didn't did he?"

Slowly nodding her head, Hanna opened her mouth to say something, but Molly was already out of the door, and making her way to the three still standing and gawking at the pictures which has re-emerged.

"All right, give me those!" The small, yet fierce, girl quickly yanked the images out of an unsuspecting Luna's hands, and what she saw was what she was afraid off.

There, in all their glory, were several shots of what appeared to be Molly's hand down Kathy's skirt (Which in fact was just her retrieving the 'lost' key), and then, even more worse, there were pictures of the two sleeping in the same bed together, perhaps a little too close for comfort.

It seemed to be a habit of Molly's to turn a bright red colour, and this moment right now was proof of that. Grasping the pictures a bit tighter, Molly mouthed something along the lines off 'that-pervy-old-man-is-so-going-to-pay-for-this' before running off as fast as she could, her destination being that of the Brass Bar.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Why are you looking so nervous?" Inside the Brass Bar, (Who's tenders apparently hadn't seen the photographs yet) an un-amused like usual Chase was questioning a rather shaky Luke, who had already ordered three drinks in the last 5 minutes.

Not getting an answer, Chase pressed him further. "Did you ask Selena out again?"

"NO. Oh man, it is so much worse than that." Rising up in his chair, then instantly sinking back down into it again, Luke held his face in his hands, anticipating the extent of the fight which was going to come out of the situation. Desperately trying to keep it to a minimum, he came to the bar to not let the photos hit there as well, because, if Chase saw them, Molly would seriously let all hell break loose.

Raising an eyebrow, Chase eyed the man slowly before asking the obvious question of; "What could be more worse than that?"

Before Luke even had a chance to respond however, there was a huge _bang _as a fuming Molly kicked to door to the Bar open and stormed in.

His attention now turning to where the noise came from, the well known chef simply stated; "Careful Molly, we can't afford another door."

Ignoring his comment completely, Molly proceeded to stomp into the bar and look around. Her target however, was not found.

"Where's Kathy?" she said quickly and quite sharply, turning her attention a now bemused Chase.

"Well, maybe if you spoke a bit politer I would be able to tell you that..."

"Just tell me where she is, jackass."

Deciding that this was an opportunity to have some fun with Molly's temper, Chase was about to push his luck with her before Kathy came in from the bar's store room.

"KATHY." Running over to the confused woman, Molly quickly shoved the images in her face.

"Whoa, Moll, get them out of my face if you want me to see them pro...per...ly." after pushing her friends hands a bit further back, It took a few minutes for Kathy to register what she was seeing.

Now gaining the interest of a few of the customers (Apart from Luke, who was silently crying with his head on the table) the blonde bar tender's eyes flashed with what seemed to be rage.

"Oh whoever printed these is so dead." She whispered, before nodding at Molly, who in turn, repeated the gesture.

"Printed what? What are you so...angry... about...?"

Within their rage, the pair failed to notice a figure come up behind them to take a look at the pictures.

And when they did notice however, the damage had already been done.

A now furiously blushing Chase (Which was a rare sight admittedly) stood looking at his feet, not knowing what to do.

Panic instantly flooding over her, Molly tried to find some excuse.

"Uh well, it's not what you think Chase, h-honestly!" Biting her lip as she waited for his response, Molly could only worry about what he was going to think of her now.

"N-no, I know it's not that." He stated, to the shock of everyone.

"Huh?" Even Luke but this point had recovered significantly enough to lift his head up and wander what was going on.

"I've know you two long enough to know that you would never do something...inappropriate like that. And I also know all too well what Kathy gets like when she's drunk, and how Molly helps her in these situations. It just...makes me so angry at whoever printed these! Trying to get some cheap gossip, they don't even know that this happens all the time!"

"C-Chase?"

Moving so that he was now standing in front of them, a significantly angered Chase looked intensely at the two girls.

"Oh your right Kathy, they are _so_ dead."

* * *

><p>Hahaha well again, this was longer than what I expected. I hope you enjoyed like usual! And leave a review letting me know what you think! That way, I can write more of what you guys want to read. :3<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

This is a longer chapter still! xD This is what happens when I don't give myself a time limit to do something. I started typing this at like 8am this morning, and it's noooow...10am. Man it takes me ages to type something! Anyways, this chapter finally has some mushiness in it! So please read and I hope that you enjoy like usual!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon son!

* * *

><p>"CHAAAAASE GIVE ME BACK MY AXE!"<p>

"Yeah! We don't need another axe wielding lunatic! Luke is bad enough!"

"HEY!"

"I really hate running."

Running after a seemingly very angry Chase, Molly, Kathy and Luke all gave their best attempts in getting the man to put Luke's axe down before he made his way over to Simon's photography studio. None of them had ever seen the man so angry before, and were scared at what he could possible do when wielding an axe. They also, however, wandered why he felt the need to steal Luke's axe when he had a vast array of knives at his disposal.

"I don't think that he's listening to us!" yelled Luke to the women behind him who were slowly starting to run out of breath.

"Well no Shit!" Kathy, who was also getting pretty annoyed by this point, quickly snapped back before coming to a halt.

"Kathy?" Stopping as well to see what was wrong, Molly stood beside her friend as she tried to catch her breath. Signalling to Luke to carry on running after Chase, Molly waited until he was out of site before continuing.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you think is wrong? I may be good at riding horses, but when it comes to running...no."

"That's because you drink so much."

"Oh don't start the drink lecture again now Mol! I hear it from you at least twice a week. It probably has nothing to do with my lack of physical fitness anyways. "

Holding back a giggle, Molly playfully slapped a now recovered Kathy on the back. "Shall we go catch up with them now?"

"I don't see why we should."

Giving a confused look, Molly just stared at her friend for a while. "But Kathy! He could kill somebody!"

"Psssh, as if. Even at his angriest I don't think that Chase could even hurt a fly, let alone kill a person. Besides, that man needs to pay for the photo's he took, so why not let the guys have some fun with letting their rage out?"

Thinking over the possibilities for a moment, Molly weighed up all of the options in her head, coming to the conclusion that yes, getting Simon to pay for what he did was a better route to take than to risk somebody getting hurt. Smiling to herself, Molly realised just how much Kathy's logic failed.

Fails in a good way, however.

"I take that smile as a yes?"

"You bet. We better go check up on them eventually though."

"Sure we will, but for now..." jumping up on one of the towns many ledges, Kathy helped Molly up as well. "We'll just sit here until it gets too cold."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I'm innocent I tell you! I never printed the pictures, honestly!"

By the time Luke had caught up with Chase, it was far too late. He was already inside of the studio, waving an axe around in Simon's face in order to get him to pay up for what he did. Thankfully though, Luke noted that the waving around of the axe wasn't really going to cause any harm.

"Then who did? Is there another photographer in town that I've never heard of before?" Lowering the axe slightly, Chase leant himself on the counter at the back of the shop, preparing himself for what could be a long conversation.

Sighing in relief that the axe had now be lowered, thus putting him out of danger a bit less, Simon sat back down in his chair.

"What I'm trying to say is" he began, whilst going over to get his order book, " I may have _took_ the photographs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I _printed_ them."

"Hmm?"

"Look here:" flicking to a rather large order, Simon pointed out one name in particular.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me..." Chase mumbled whilst the previous anger from earlier quickly returned.

"Nope, she was the one who asked for them to be printed. She accidently saw them when coming in to pick up an order of her own, and seemed very interested in them. I wander why."

Holding his hand to his chin in thought, Simon pondered the reason for this, eventually putting the two and two together.

"That could be it!" he exclaimed out loud. "Chase, you and Molly don't have a thing going on now, do you?"

Blushing slightly, Chase (Unlike Molly) managed to regain the majority of his cool when being confronted with the man's question.

The key word here being majority.

"N...No...why would you think that?" he managed to stammer out, turning his face to the side. It was then that he noticed Luke standing a little ways behind him.

"Shit..."he inwardly thought as noticed the smirk on the other man's face. Like most people, Chase had realised early on that Luke may be a bit of an idiot, but he could certainly be sneaky when he wanted to be.

Noticing the panicked look upon his face, Simon decided to use the opportunity to get revenge on the man for falsely accusing him of doing such a terrible thing. And on top of that accusation, he also hit the door with the axe on the way in, leaving a rather large mark down the middle of it.

Oh yeah, he was definitely going to milk this situation.

"Oh really. Well, you certainly seemed a bit flustered now, however hard you try to keep your cool."

"Y..yeah, We-ll that's because, because..."

Not giving him a chance to finish, Simon carried on with his 'tormenting' as he liked to think of it as.

"Well maybe if there's nothing going on between you two, maybe you have feelings for her? I mean after all, the pictures don't compromise you in any ways, and since Kathy is already in a close relationship with Owen...it only makes sense that you should be angry at the thought of Molly not being interested in_ men_. Am I right?"

Not being able to hide his embarrassment any longer, Chase (Who was now rather nice tomato red colour) ran out of the room, muttering various obscenities under his breath.

"I'm going to kill her!" he yelled as he rather forcefully pushed the door open.

Unfortunately for him, he pushed it open at the wrong time, and a bit_ too_ forcefully.

"Ow!" came a startled cry in response, the owner of the cry obviously just been hit by the door.

"Molly!"

Stopping in his anger run, Chase turned around to find Kathy frantically scrabbling for a tissue in order to stop the bleeding which had appeared on Molly's nose.

Guilt rushing over him, he went back over to Molly who was now trying not to cry, and could be heard muttering something along the lines of "it better not be broken..."

" Molly, I..." not really knowing what to say, hell, not even knowing whether 'I'm sorry' would be good enough right now, the man just stared at her whilst she looked up at him with watery eyes.

"Way to make me feel even more guilty..."he thought whilst trying to find something to say.

"I'm not crying, my eyes are just watering from the stinging."

"...Oh."

"Ah, this thing won't stop bleeding!" Kathy, who had taken on the role of nurse during the situation, looked at her watch before sighing as she realised that the clinic was closed.

"We better go and see if they'll tend to you anyways, Mol. I think your nose might be broken."

"Ugh..."

"KATHY, CHASE, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU OUT HERE INSTEAD OF WORKING?"

The booming voice made everyone jump, along with making Kathy and Chase curse at the man whi it belonged to in reposonse.

"Yeah well what are you doing yourself you old man! Now there's no one in the bar apart from Selena, and I doubt that she could look after a bar even if she tried!"

Looking over to Kathy like she was mad, Chase just stayed quiet as he waited for yet another argument to break out.

"Old man? Who do you think you're talk-" before he could start his comeback, Hayden spotted Molly out of the corner of his eye and changed his train of thoughts.

"What ever happened to you, Missy! You should get Irene or Jin to sort that out for you, it looks pretty broken to me."

"I got hit by a door, Kathy and Chase were looking after me which is why they're here, and the clinics closed." Not being able to speak properly made Molly rush her sentences, and the pain made her not willing to beat around the bush.

"Wait, I'm the one who hit her, why is she defending me...?" thought a now shocked Chase as he focused his attention back onto Molly.

"That girl is just too kind...it makes me mad." He concluded, before turning back to Hayden who was now patting him on the shoulder.

"The hell? What is it?"

"Take Molly to the clinic to see if they'll treat her. Then come back to work. I can get some food ready whilst you're doing that - I just need Kathy to serve it."

"...Um, okay."

With the commotion now died down completely, Kathy gave Molly a hug before turning around to get back to work.

"Take good care of her now! I know that you'll both enjoy the time along together." Kathy whispered in Chase's ear as she passed by, giving him a wink as he resumed the pink colour from earlier on in the evening.

Noting the blush on his cheeks, Molly just looked away, not willing to ask what Kathy had just said to him.

"I swear that girl is..."

Being cut off of the possibilities of what Kathy could have just said, Molly noticed an arm being slung around her shoulder.

"Come on, the blood loss might make you dizzy, so just lean up against me as we walk up the steps to the clinic."

"O-Okay..."

Walking to rest of the way in silence, all the two could think about was the feel and warmth of each other, and how they were both secretly really annoying this moment.

Not that the other could ever be feeling the same way though, they thought, not a chance.

Knocking on the pale coloured door, the two were greeted by a rather unhappy Irene.

"Don't you know we're closed? I'm telling you youths these days just don't know how to read - Oh Molly!"

"Sorry to disturb you this late, but we didn't really think we should wait until the morning to get this looked at."

"No, don't be sorry, come in you poor thing."

Ushering the two inside, Irene sat them down at the examination desk whilst she called Jin to come help her fix the bloodied nose up.

Just raising an eyebrow, the solemn Doctor cleared up the area before disinfecting it, something which made Molly cringe as the fluid stung the wound, and causing her to unconsciously grab Chase's arm. It was gesture which he didn't mind however, and in response to it he put a hand lovingly over top of hers.

After taking a few x-rays just to check if the nose really was broken or fractured, Irene told the two to wait whilst they processed them.

During this time, an awkward silence enveloped the two, before Chase finally decided to say what he should have done earlier.

"Molly...I'm sorry for causing this to happen to you...I shouldn't have gotten so angry..."

Now smiling as best she could due to the stiffness of her now drying nose, Molly just gave his arm which she was still holding a light squeeze.

"It's okay, accidents happen all of the time, so I'm not going to hold it against you."

"Ah well that's a relief..." slouching slightly into the chair, the man continued; "It's just that after I found out that Maya was the one who gave everyone a copy of those photos, something just came over me and made me really angry. Just why would she do something as horrible as that?"

"Well, she does hate me for one." Molly began whilst turning her head to directly look at the figure beside her, "And besides, she's so immature, does it really surprise you that much?"

Slightly laughing, Chase just shook his head in agreement. "That's actually too true, your right."

"Well Molly, I'm glad to say that you only have a slight fracture to your nose, nothing more. It will heal up by itself over time, but I just want you to come back in a couple of weeks to make sure that it's all okay, if that's alright?"

"That's perfectly fine!" Jumping up out of her seat, Molly was just glad to hear that she wouldn't be compromised by some silly accident.

Smiling as she opened the door for the two, Irene simply added on to her instructions for Molly not to push herself (Like usual) and to try and not knock the injured area, before wishing the a two good night.

Stepping out into the now cool air, Molly shivered as the late night Autumn breeze hit her bare arms.

Witnessing this, something clicked in Chase's mind, and without thinking about it, he pulled the smaller girl before him into a tight hug.

"C..Chase? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just saw that you were cold is all."

Her heart dropping a little bit, Molly could only utter a small 'oh' in response.

"That, and because I just well...wanted too. I just don't understand how you can always be so nice, Mol, so I...I just wanted to do something nice for once."

Her face heating up at his words, and the fact that he called her 'Mol', a name which only her closest friends called her, Molly simply hugged the man in return, and whispering a soft 'thank you' as she snuggled up to him.

After a few minutes to two broke apart, and Chase suggested that the two go back to the bar.

"Kathy will want to know how you are, after all."

Nodding in agreement, the two walked back over the popular building. Chase, however, still couldn't get something out of his mind.

Looking over at Molly with a frown upon his face, he studies the girl for a few moments.

"What?" she asked worriedly, whilst frowning back at the man.

"You're not really a lesbian, are you?"

* * *

><p>Huurdurr. Well that was weird, I have no clue how that chapter turned out.<br>There's going to be a time skip in the next chapter, or else I can't think of anything else to write about haha. But do not cry! DO NOT CRY, it won't be a very big one. If anyone gets where the do not cry reference comes from, you get chapter involving an idea of your choice. xD

Ohhh, by the way, updates will probably be slower as of Wednesday, as I have to go back to sixth form. -.-

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter at least a little bit like usual again, and reviews expressing your thoughts on it are once again loved!


	5. Chapter 5

First of all, yes, I know Animal Parade doesn't have a Pumpkin festival or Halloween, but since it's fanfiction, it does now!

Anyways, I wasn't originally going to write this, but I just wanted to break the time skip up a little bit, so it's not a complete 'omg what the hell happened in those two weeks' kind of thing.

I hope you know what I mean. xD The idea was actually given to me by a friend when she ranting about our previous Halloween experiences after seeing some little kid dressed as a witch for some reason LOL.

Disclaimer: Apparently I don't own Harvest Moon.

* * *

><p>Halloween – the one day a year in which children can successfully eat as much candy as they please, without the risk of being scolded by their parents.<br>If you're not a child or a parent (who is unwilling dragged along each house with their eager child) however, then the day can seem meaningless and just a nuisance.

That is, unless your Kathy and Luke.

"Come on Mol! Let's at least see what it looks like on you!"

"No...it looks far too...far too..._not me_. I don't think I've ever even seen this stuff sold before, let alone wear it!"

Sighing in frustration, Kathy got up of the couch which she had been sitting on (Notably for the past hour in which she and Luke had been trying to persuade Molly out of her bathroom) and went over and started to rattle the door to said room.

"Well then, if you're not going to come out, then we're going to come in! We need to at least see what it looks like on you before you completely give up on it!"

"N-no! It's embarrassing."

Ignoring the pleas coming from the other side of the door, Kathy continued with her assault on the wooden contraption. Quickly getting fed up with trying to open it however, she figured it was going to take more to break the lock on the thing.

"Okay then Molly..." she said sweetly, whilst turning to the other presence in the room. "Luke, dear? Can you help me with this?"

"Of course I may, Ma'am."

"WHOA WHOA WHOA wait a minute."

Smirking as she heard the lock to the door click, Kathy quickly pushed it open before her friend could reconsider. It was doubtful however, if she wanted her door to stay in one piece.

"..."

"W-what?" Noticing the other woman just staring at her dumbfounded, Molly assumed she must look terrible- it took ALOT to shut Kathy up after all.

As she was about to back away to hide behind the shower curtain in order to conceal her embarrassment, Molly was caught off guard by her now back- to- earth- friend grabbing her arm rather tightly, and squealing as loud as she could.

"Oh. My. God! Molly! What were you so worried about? You look really hot! And cute! All at the same time!"

"Uh..."

"I'm not surprised that Chase thought that you might be lesbians considering you keep talking like tha-WHOA MOLLY!"

Luke, who had now also stuck his head around the door in order to see what the extreme squeal was all about, quickly made his remark then backed out again in fear of an oncoming nosebleed. (He still however, couldn't resist peaking in.)

"Think Selena Luke, Selena!"

A now furiously embarrassed Molly turned her head away from the two, accidently catching a glimpse of herself in the full length mirror which hung on the wall as she did so.  
>Looking herself up and down, she wandered how the hell Kathy had even managed to get her to try on the outfit in the first place.<p>

She also highly doubted that it was going to come off anytime soon.

"You can be such a sneaky woman Kathy." She muttered, as she pulled at the skin-tight, black leather 'cat' costume which was now adorning her (Surprisingly curvy) figure.

"Well, I knew you would probably never wear something so daring, so I just made the excuse that I just want you to model it for me, then you could take it off afterwards."

Running her hand over Molly's leather-clad arm, Kathy smiled at her plan's success.

"Yeah, that's not going to come off without any help."

With an amused smile, Molly went over to sit on the edge of the bath, seriously doubting that the costume would come off at all, considering how hard she found it to bend to sit down.

"Good God Kathy, I sometimes wonder whether you're really my best friend or not."

"I sometimes wonder whether you remember that you other best friend happens to be a male."

"Shit, sorry Luke!" Quickly slamming the bathroom door shut again, Kathy turned her attention back to Molly, the slightly evil smirk now re-appearing on her face.

"I don't even want to hear what you're going to say. But I guess I don't get a choice huh?"

The smirk now increasing, she pulled her friend up (After noticing the difficulty which she found in sitting down) and leant over to whisper her thoughts in her ear – she didn't want to cause Luke to faint after all.

After she had finished, Molly just stared at Kathy like she was crazy.

"Staring is rude, you know."

"You're shitting me, right?"

"Nope, why would I ever do that to my dear Mollyyyy?" Hugging the now rather scared girl, Kathy proceeded to drag her out of the room, rambling something about how she needed to help her get into her costume now, since she wasn't as thin as Molly etc etc...too bad that Molly just had her thoughts elsewhere, carefully planning where she could hide for the next six months in order to escape the embarrassment which was likely to unfold from later events.

Six months would be enough time for everyone to forget the night, right?

"Molly, snap out of it and hold this." Finally coming out of her train of thoughts, Molly wished that she hadn't.

Holding the garment out in front of her, she reconsidered turning the six months into twelve instead.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"TRICK OR TREAAAAT!"

"Heeey, Happy...Halloween?"

The night now fully setting in, the trio in Molly's house had answered the door to a few dozen eager children, and were now just getting down to the last trickle of them.

What stood before them now however, wasn't something which they particularly expected.

Throwing a hand to her mouth, Kathy (Who was the first to get to the door) had to try and hold back her laughter.

There at the door stood Chloe, adorned in a fluffy white sheep costume, looking pretty pleased with herself. It wasn't that sight which was making Kathy struggle not to laugh, however.

There, standing next to the mischievous girl, was Bo, looking rather annoyed at the outfit which one could only assume had been forced upon him.

Apparently someone had came up with the clever idea to dress up Bo in a powder blue, over the top frilly dress, complete with knee high lace socks and a long blonde wig.

"HAHAHA Little Bo Peep! What are you doing? Controlling Chloe? I now see why you she was allowed out without Owen or Ramsey, I mean, you ARE a 'Sheppard' after all...HAHA."

Frowning at Kathy's laughter which she just couldn't hold back any longer, Bo just turned his back to the hysterical woman.

"Yeah, well...I'm only doing it because your boyfriend wouldn't!"

"Yeah!" he thought too himself smiling, "take that lady!"

Unfortunately for Bo, the comment just made Kathy laugh even harder, clutching her stomach as she started to struggle to breath.

"Oh...my...GOD...Owen in a...a dress? That would have been hilarious!"

"Kathy, what the hell are you doing?" elbowing the girl in the side to shut her up, Molly handed out the candy to the two children, whilst profoundly apologising to Bo in the process.

"Nah, don't apologise to him, he enjoys it really." Replied a satisfied Chloe, who waved goodbye and dragged Bo away to the next place of torture before he had a chance to protest.

"Aw, Mol, you could have at least laughed! Or elbowed me harder, you're so weak for being a farmer. I thought you would have had manly strength by now."

"Don't even go down there..." sighing, Molly went and got Luke from the living room, who was still in awe at the sight of his best friends. (Kathy had also joined Molly with putting on an identical cat costume, with the reasoning that she wanted to limit her best friend's embarrassment.)

"Aww, someone reluctant to go out?"

"Wow, how did you ever guess that Kathy?" rolling her eyes at her stupidity, Molly walked over to her kitchen table to collect her keys.

"I don't know...maybe the sarcastic and moody tone in your voice?"

"Just get out of the house so I can lock up."

xxxxxxxxx

"Almost thereeee! He better be ready, 'cause it's damn cold out here."

"I told you these costumes were a bad idea Kathy! We're going to freeze to death."

"Oh, you'll see that it won't be a bad idea in a minute."

He heart now beating rapidly in her chest, Molly was thankful that the darkness of the night was concealing her quickly reddening face.

Apparently Kathy and Luke weren't the only adults who still celebrated Halloween, in fact, pretty much the whole of Harmonica town did. It was a yearly ritual for the residents who didn't have children to spend the rest of the night from 8pm onwards in the Brass Bar, drinking and showing off the costumes which they had found themselves to wear.  
>Unfortunetly for Kathy, she still had to act as a waitress for most of the night, and Chase still had to be a cook.<p>

Which was why the three were now on the way to his house, in order to spend some time with him before he and Kathy had to work.

Well, that's what Kathy told him at least.

Finally reaching the door, Kathy slammed her fist against it as hard as she could.

"..."

"COME ON CHASE OPEN UP IT'S FREEZING."

"M...maybe he's already gone?" Molly's heart slightly sank of the thought that he could have forgotten the arranged meeting. At the same time however, she was slightly relieved that he wouldn't see her like this.

"Nah, he just needs some persuading!" getting annoyed at the lack of response, and the hurt look which was on Molly's face because of it, Kathy began to hammer on the door more.

"For the love of everything good Kathy, what is up with you and your friends trying to break down doors..."

Hearing the voice on the other side, Kathy immediately stopped hitting the door, for the risk of punching the man in the face when he opened it.

A few seconds later the door lock clicked open, and an annoyed Chase appeared, whilst running a towel through his hair.

"I was getting out of the shower, you really do need to be more...pa...tient..." about to go off on a 'Chase rant', he decided better of it upon seeing Molly shyly standing to the side of Kathy.

"Two seconds." He said before slamming the door in their faces again.

Turning to Molly, Kathy had a smug look upon her face.

"Told you that it would have a good effect, didn't I?"

* * *

><p>I didn't want this to be a two part chapter, but it seems like it would flow better if it was. D: Typical. I'll try and put both parts up tonight however, so don't worry.<p>

So sorry about the lack of Molly and Chase action in this part, all will be made up for in the next.


	6. Chapter 6

Second paaaart. This chapter is DEFINETLY a T rating, because of an incident towards the end. I apologise in advance if it makes some people feel uncomfortable, I was really debating whether or not to put it in or not. But, I toned it down as much as possible, so it shouldn't be too bad. Anyways, enjoy, I think? xD

Disclaimer: Don't own Harvest Moon. -.-

* * *

><p>"Okay Chase, calm down, calm down."<p>

Leaning up against the door which he just realised he had slammed rather rudely in the girl's faces (Plus Luke), the extremely flustered male tried to get a hold of himself.

That however, was easier said than done.

He had only caught a glimpse, but what Chase actually saw of Molly instantly sent him into the undeniable 'perv' mode which all male's seem to have, however hard they try to deny it.  
>Several inappropriate thoughts flooded through his mind as he attempted to turn his face back to it's proper colour, which was difficult considering whenever he made any progress, the thoughts just turned it straight back to the beet red colour from before.<p>

"How am I going to survive the night like this?" he thought as he finally started to gain some control of his mind again, "Every time I see her I'll just want to..."

The small piece of gained control lost already, the Chef finally gave in and just opened the door, figuring that he wasn't going to be able to shake the thoughts of his head however hard he tried.

"Bit rude just slamming the door in our faces, don't you think? Even for you, that was a bit too much."

"Yeah, sorry, Kathy." Doing his best to avoid looking at Molly again, Chase locked his door before turning back to Kathy, who was staring at him stupidly.

"What have you got that look on your face for?"

"You said sorry."

"Oh..."

The next part of her plan successfully working, Kathy was about to bully the poor guy into showing more of his feelings, before Luke abruptly cut her off, exclaiming that they'd be late for work if they didn't hurry up.

"Besides, Molly's getting really cold."

She shot a glare at Luke for cutting of her meddling, before quickly agreeing that yes, they should in fact get moving.

"Better opportunities at the bar, anyways." She thought to herself as she grabbed Molly's hand and dragged her along with her as she ran to the destination.

Sighing as they trailed behind, Luke gave a sympathetic look to the bemused man walking beside him.

"I'm sorry about this man, Kathy always likes to meddle in things."

"I-It's okay..."he nervously began, finding the ground beneath his feet extremely interesting all of a sudden. "I just wish she wouldn't, is all...it's so awkward and embarrassing, I can tell Molly feels uncomfortable about the whole thing as well."

Laughing slightly, Luke gave the man a friendly slap on the back.

"You don't know how right you are! She actually tricked Molly into wearing that, she would have never have chose too. But, I guess in a way it's a good thing. After all, Kathy is helping Molly to build up some self confidence about herself."

"I think there's better ways of building up some self confidence rather than just making her look sexy. To be honest, it's probably making her feel more self _conscious_, rather than self confident.

"Did you just call my best friend sexy?"

"Huh? Oh...Umm...I-I..." inwardly cursing himself for letting slip that sentence, Chase carefully thought about how to explain what he had just said to Luke.

Thankfully for him, he didn't need to since Luke just smiled at him and waved it off.

"You two are so oblivious, it makes me look intelligent...well we managed to make it here on time without running, so I don't know why Kathy dragged Molly off so quickly." Taking the attention away from his previous remark by announcing their arrival to the bar, Luke held open the door for Chase, who was now seriously thinking over what Luke had just said to him.

He didn't have much time to think before Hayden interrupted him however.

"CHASE YOU WERE NEARLY LATE, NOW COME HERE AND GET COOKING BOY."

"Do you have to yell all of the time Dad?"

"Of course I do dear; it's the only way you can get people to listen to you."

Tutting at her father's illogical thinking, Kathy set down a drink at a table before walking over to where Molly was sitting, who had now been joined by Luke.

"See, we weren't the only ones who dressed up!" she happily exclaimed whilst she looked around the room.

"Maybe so, but everyone else isn't dressed like hookers."

"Aw come of it Mol! We don't look like hookers! I see everyone thinks that you're pretty good looking though, remember all of the whistling when we walked in? And even now some of the guys are still staring at you!"

Deliberately finishing her last sentence rather loudly, Kathy looked over to Chase, who seemed to be cutting some ingredients a bit more violently than usual.

"And again, my plan is working..." Smiling as she walked off, she winked to a few of the men who were now staring at her as she walked past.

"I don't want guys to look at me though..." sighing sadly she laid her head on the table, Molly looked out of the corner of her eye, only to see Kathy harassing Chase once again.

Gently placing a hand on her shoulder, Luke gave a sympathetic smile to the girl.

"You know she only means well...but if you want, I'll ask her to stop."

"No its okay...I don't want to make her mad, she is trying after all."

"Hmm...Well, just say if she starts going too far."

Slighting moving her head in a nodding motion, Molly just continued to stare at Chase, who was now waving a knife at Kathy in order to get her to leave him alone.

This sequence of events continued for the majority of the night, with Chase and Kathy breaking out into at least 5 arguments, before Hayden threatened to take away the alcohol from his daughter if she kept harassing his chef.

Molly wandered why she hadn't used that threat when being made to put her costume on. She was already becoming sick of the evening - she had already had several half-drunk men walk over to where she was sitting and tried to flirt with her, some making rude sexual remarks before Luke drove them away.

"Mol...? " Looking up from the apparent day dream which she was in, she noticed Luke looking at her rather worriedly.

"Are you okay? You've been really spaced out ever since we got here."

"Well...I'm not exactly interested in this night, and apparently Kathy's 'plan' or whatever she called it had backfired, since Chase is ignoring me completely now..."

Biting his lip to stop himself from blurting out the obvious reason as to _why _Chase happened to be ignoring her, all Luke could do was stay silent as he desperately tried to think of something to say.

"E...Excuse me pretty...*hic* lady..."

Yet another drunken man from another town approached Molly, causing Luke to look back up at the girl, who just shook her head at him, signalling that it's nothing to worry about.

"What is it?" Molly impatiently turned to face the man who questioned her; a short, stout man with an unshaven face, messy hair, and reeking of alcohol-the type of man which makes you shudder and feel uncomfortable.

"I was...just wanderin' whether you...would like to get out of here with me tonight...I'm surprised you've not gone with some other man yet."

"I haven't gone with any other man, because I'm not interested in drunkards like you. Does that answer your questions?"

"Aww but baby...I could give you a better time...than any of the men in here..." as he was talking to Molly, the man started to get too close to her, causing Luke toget his axe at the ready. Even though they had been dealing with men like this all night, none had ever gotten this close to their target.

"Get away from me, please, I hate the smell of alcohol on a man." Being polite with the man to begin with, Molly pleaded with him to get away, scared for both her own safety, and his.

"Playing hard to get huh? That just makes me want you even more..."

Now genuinely scared, Molly tried to get up out of her seat to move away from the man, but instead it just gave him an opportunity to grab her by the waist and pull him towards her.

"GET OF ME!" She shrieked whilst trying to break free of his grasp, only making him hold on tighter.

Reacting instantly, Luke rose out of his seat and pointed his axe at the man, only to find that he had been beaten to the 'rescue.'

"Let her go, you asshole. Men like you make me sick." Looking over to the voice, Luke noticed a serious looking Chase and Hayden standing in front of the man, with Kathy trying to direct the other customer's attention away from the scene.

"Oh...sorry, I didn't realise...she had a man! I wandered why she had been staring at you all night! Fff guys like you...are so lucky...you always get the babes."

"Just let her go, or else we'll force you to let go."

"Hah, what, a scrawny man like you? You'll need to threaten me better than that to make me let go of this girl."

"He may be scrawny, but I'm sure not." Stepping forward, Hayden decided that it was going to be better to end the conflict now, rather than risk something bad happening to Molly.

"Shit dude...what do you do...to get muscles like that? All you do...is work in a bar all night."

"I knock some sense into idiots like you, so unless you want to give me a workout, I suggest you let the girl go and leave." Cracking his knuckles, Hayden made his offer final.

"Well...ugh, whatever, no one ever lets a guy...have any fun any more..." Pushing Molly away from him forcefully and causing her to trip, the man stormed out of the bar.

"Molly!" Stepping a couple of paces to stop her from falling over, Chase caught her and helped to re-establish her balance.

"Are you okay, Molly, he didn't hurt you did he? Because if he did, I swear that he'll pay for it."

"No...No...I'm...okay...I..." not being able to finish her sentence, Molly just fell into floods of tears, the relief that nothing had happened to her, but also the thought of what could have happened, being overwhelming.

"Mol..." pulling her towards him, Chase just held onto to Molly as she cried, completely ignoring how close their bodies were too each other.  
>As he held her, the young chef began to feel angry at the man who had made Molly so upset, who had put her in a situation such as that one. He was also angry at himself for not being able to protect her on his own, and having to rely upon Hayden to come to the rescue.<p>

"I'm sorry...I'm getting you really wet."

Feeling Molly shakily laugh out a sentence made the man feel slightly better. She was okay, right? That's all that mattered right now.

"Don't be sorry, silly, I don't mind." Speaking softly to her, he raised his hand and stroked her hair for comfort (And because he just couldn't resist much longer) causing Molly's cries to die down to a few sobs, and her face heat up in the process.

For a few minutes the two just stayed in the same position until finally Hayden spoke up, saying that maybe it would be a good idea for Molly to head home now.

"Yeah...I think this is enough for tonight." Kathy added on, before turning to Molly.

"Molly...I'm so sorry, if it wasn't for me, this would have never happened to you...I never expected this to happen, I just...I..."

Looking back at the girl, Molly smiled warmly at her. "It's okay, Kathy...I know you only meant well, and it wasn't you fault that idiots like him exist."

"Oh, Molly, you're far too nice...come on, I'll walk you home. Do you want me to stay with you tonight...? It might be a good idea if Luke did too, just to have some man security there in case that guy reappears. Is that okay with you, Luke?"

"Of course, I was going to suggest the same thing if neither of you did."

"Great...I'll just go get some things, it's near closing time anyways."

Finally breaking away from Chase, Molly said that she would help Kathy, to speed up the process.

Before she left however, she tightly hugged Chase once more and thanked him for looking out for her, and the comfort which he gave.

Merely nodding in response, he watched Molly walk up the bar's stairs to Kathy's room, before turning to Luke.

"Luke...can I tell you something?"

"Hm? Sure, what is it?"

"I understand why you made that comment earlier now."

"Oh...you mean, you realised?"

Nodding as he looked away, Chase found himself telling the person he's least expect himself to want to know this:

"I really like Molly."

* * *

><p>Dun dun duuuun. Man, that was actually heavier than I expected...I hope I approached the issue well enough...<p>

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with the descriptions, by the way, there not supposed to be offensive, at least.

I think I got some gender mix ups in there as well...guess I'm just like the game in that sense then, huh? xD

Reviews are loved like usual etc etc, and thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

Kays...xD I apologise now for going on about OMG THIS CHAPTER IS DEFINETLY A T TROOLOLOL. And it ended up being anything but that. I wrote that before I wrote the chapter, so it did apply at the time, but then I had to go back and edit the scene, as it was pushing T too much than what I was comfortable with. If anyone wants to read the original scene, then you can pm me for it, as I kept it in another file just in case. xD (This was the last chapter just to make it clear, not this one. )

Sorry for the increasingly slow updates...

Disclaimer: What do you think? I don't own Harvest Moon. ;D

* * *

><p>"About 11000G...not too bad."<p>

Standing up and stretching, a satisfied Molly looked on into her shipping bin, full of the first Harvest of Buckwheat for the winter season.

It had been almost two weeks since the incident in the Brass bar, and since then, her relationship with Chase had only been getting better and better.  
>They would see each other most days, either when Molly went into the bar to relax during the cold evenings, or as she passed by his house in order to buy some more seeds from the Marimba farm.<br>They would spend as much time as they could just talking about anything and everything which came into their minds-they found they were actually pretty similar after having proper conversations, which weren't just them insulting each other for once.

Looking at her watch, Molly found that it was earlier than she had expected-the Marimba farm wasn't going to be open for another hour, which gave her some time to relax before she had to head over and start her next crops of the season.  
>With a sigh, she walked back into her house, thinking about what she could make for the picky chef to sample today.<p>

"Why can't he just accept the same thing everyday...It's easy to make things like cake and various drinks...but nooo, he has to have something different."

As much as she complained about his habits, Molly couldn't help but admit that she enjoyed thinking about what she could make Chase each day...she also couldn't help but admit that she gained a rather happy feeling inside of her when he nodded his head in approval at her work. To Molly, it was almost like it was only his opinion which mattered to her. As much as she loved Kathy and Luke, they would always say her cooking was excellent, even if she had burned the hell out of whatever she was making. Besides, she didn't need to impress them anymore, they were her secure best friends and she doubted that much could change that.

Blushing as she carried on with her daydream, Molly didn't realise she was cutting precariously close to her fingers until it was too late.

"Shit!"

Running over to her sink, she quickly turned the tap on and put her rather slashed finger under the running water, causing her to grow slightly faint at the sight of how much blood was being washed down the drain.

"Okay Molly, calm down...it's just the water making it look like there's a lot of blood, right? Yeah that's right, there's probably not much there at all...now what did Dad say to do when you cut yourself? "

After standing with her finger under the water for a couple of minutes, Molly eventually remembered vaguely what to do, and grabbed a towel out of her bathroom to press onto the wound to stop it from bleeding. Shaking slightly, she removed the towel after she felt the bleeding stop as much as she thought it would do, and wound a small layer of bandage around her finger.

"There..." Looking up at the ceiling, Molly gently gave her thanks to her Dad for teaching her at a young age what to do if she injured herself, before turning to the clock which sat pinned upon her wall.

7:30.

Staring at the clock for a few moments as if she were wishing the time to rewind, Molly eventually gave in and cleared up the mess on her cutting board.

"I don't think he'd appreciate me giving him a blood flavoured pie...unless he's a vampire."

With a slight smile at the thought, she threw the remains of her cooking attempt into her bin, before heading out to the Farm to get the seeds. It was still early, but from previous experiences, Molly knew that it was best to get started as early on in the day as possible.

As the bell on the door to the shop gave its little jingle, Molly was greeted by a rather energetic Taylor bounding up to her.

"Hey Molly!" he practically shouted before being hushed by Anissa, who, by judging by the copious amounts of smoke which was coming from the oven, was apparently having her own problems in the kitchen.

"Hey...you okay there, Anissa?"

Looking round and giving a weak smile, the also young farmer (Who Molly had also started to become close too) silently mouthed 'no' as if saying to Molly 'Don't say anything, or else my Mother will come into here and kill me.'

Returning her friends smile with her own, Molly exited the kitchen as placed her order of seeds with Ruth.

"Thank you, dear, I'll just be a couple of minutes whilst I get them out of storage-not many people can be bothered to grow crops in winter, so there's no use in keeping them out."

Nodding her head as she put the necessary money down onto the counter, Molly looked around the newly thriving business, a sense of pride washing over her as she recalled that it was her who helped the farm evolve into such a great state.

"Why don't you go help out my sister with her cooking?"

"Huh?"

Looking down, Molly noticed Taylor staring up at her with a mischievous look on his face.

"I said why don't you go help Anissa with the cooking...Chase is your boyfriend after all right? You should know how to cook because of him."

Not knowing whether to laugh at his childish logic, or squeal about of embarrassment, Molly just stared at the younger boy for a while, much to his confusion.

"...Uh, Molly?"

"..."

"Here are your seeds, Molly, I hope you get a good profit out of them."

Quickly turning around to take the seeds of Ruth, she thanked the woman before hastily leaving the shop-it was all the excuse she needed for an escape.

Outside, she let the icy air hit her face for a while in order for her to cool down. It was true that ever since she and Chase had started speaking to each other more often, several rumours and gossip about them were now floating around. Even so, every time Molly heard a suggestive comment about them being a couple (Which believe me, was at least six times a day) she still couldn't help but get embarrassed over the situation.

"Molly...? What are you doing just standing there? You'll freeze to death if you stay there much longer."

Looking up, the girl is question inwardly kicked herself for picking that spot to go into another daydream. There, a few feet away from her, was a rather worried looking Chase leaning out of his house window, staring at her as she waited for a response. (Well, that's what she just assumed must be the reason.)

"Oh! Sorry, I was just...just checking if I had given Ruth the right amount of money or not! Yeah, that's right...wouldn't want to be a criminal now haha..ha."

"Whatever, just come inside."

Slapping her palm to her forehead as soon as the window closed, Molly couldn't help but wonder why she always acted so stupid around the man.

Well, she was stupid all of the time, she guessed. But why did she care so much about looking bad around him?

Opening the door to his house, she dumped her bag of seeds down on the neatly laid out kitchen table before slumping down into a chair which accompanied it.

"What's wrong with you today?"

"Nothing, nothing."

Frowning as he set down a cup of steaming hot tea in front of Molly, he debated whether asking the question again before sitting down in a seat opposite her.

He was cut off however, as he heard Molly speak again.

"Sorry I couldn't make you anything today, I was really pushed for time. "

Smiling at the worry which was evident in her voice, he simply leant on the table and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, you always bring things for me, and what do I do for you?"

"You make me tea when I'm about to freeze to death?"

"True true...guess I'm just a life saver eh?"

Chuckling at the friendly debate which was going on, Chase again went back to his trademark frown as he noticed the poorly wound bandage around Molly's finger.

"What?" she asked cautiously, noticing the change in his mood all of a sudden.

"What happened to your finger?"

"Oh, this...I cut it when I wasn't paying attention to my cooking."

Sighing as he stood up and made his way over to Molly's side of the table, Chase gently brought her hand up into the light where he could see it properly, before sighing again and making his way over to a cabinet in the corner of his kitchen.

"Do you know first aid at all, Molly?" he mumbled whilst rummaging through the contents of the cabinet, trying to locate what he needed.

"No."

Stopping at the blunt answer, he turned to face the young woman with a look of confusion on his face.

"And they let you run the farm, despite this? A farm which has God knows how many injury risks to it?"

"Yeah, I guess that they did."

Angrily turning back to his search, Chase eventually found the small first aid kit which he was looking for.

Putting it down on the table, he opened the box and got out the items which he needed.

"I can't believe that they didn't even ask if you knew first aid, either Hamilton was really desperate for a new farmer, or they just assumed that you already knew. Either way, I'll be having some words with that idiotic man."

"Don't worry about it...this is the first time which I've ever even injured myself whilst living here, and it wasn't even through farming."

"I know...but the point is, you could have been hurt, and what if you got hurt really badly one day and no one found you until it were too late? I don't know what I..." stopping as he realised what he was saying, the chef carefully took Molly's hand in one of his own and began unwinding the bandage which was already there.

"Let's just look at this..."

"O-okay..."

"How the hell did you manage to do this, Mol? It's like you deliberately wacked your finger as hard as you could with the knife."

Slightly laughing at the wording, Molly just gave him the story of how it happened, earning an amused look from the listener as he cleaned up and sterilised her finger properly.

"Wow, I didn't realise that I had that much of an effect on you! I'll have to keep this in mind for future situations."

"Hey, it's not nice to use things like that as bribery! And I was only thinking about what to make you, it's hard you know, since you're a darn proper chef as it is!"

"So you tell me every day."

Sniffing as the antiseptic began to sink into her finger, Molly focused her attention on Chase's hands.  
>They were surprisingly soft, she thought, for the amount of times which he'd have to wash them. They were also quite small and dainty, making her hardened; farmer's hands look like a complete mess in their grasp.<p>

"God my hands are so ugly." She thought out loud, earning another amused look.

"What? I think your hands are lovely. They show hard work, which to be honest is one of the amazing things about you..." trailing off as he finished the sentence, the also first aid trained man gently patted Molly's hand as he admired his work "...there you go, now you're properly bandaged."

"Thank you..."

Both of the adults now a delicate shade of pink, they focused their attention on the quickly cooling tea which was set out before them, in order to avoid anymore embarrassing conversations.

Looking around the room, Molly tried to fix her gaze on anything apart from the man sitting in front of her, who was also trying to do the same.  
>Eventually, her eyes landed on the calendar which hung neatly (Like everything else in the house was) on the wall next to the kitchen.<p>

"Oh...the 10th." She mumbled before sadly taking a sip of her tea.

"You going with anyone to the starry night festival tomorrow?" she asked tentatively both wanting and not wanting to know his answer at the same time.

"Actually...that's something which I wanted to ask you, but I got distracted when I noticed your injury..."

"Well I'm not going with anyone obviously, if that's what you wanted to know."

"That's one thing which I wanted to know, the other thing was...w-whether you'd like to go with me, then?"

Almost choking on her tea at the invitation, Molly just stared at Chase who she noted was now sitting looking rather flustered.

She had to stop staring at people, she also noted.

"Um um...if you mean it, then I'd love to!" Somehow managing to form a coherent response, she looked back down into her cup which was now empty, a feeling of warmth surging throughout her body.

Smiling as he took in the happy reaction of the girl before him, Chase stretched his arms and leant back in his chair.

"Great! Then meet me at Moon Hill around 7pm. I'll cook something for us too, so you don't need to worry about bringing anything. Besides, I wouldn't really want to eat your blood."

"HEY!"

Xxxx

"Okay, I'll see you later then, if you're coming to the bar."

"Of course I am! I'll need something to relax after planting all these damn seeds."

"Which you left on the table."

"Crap, I didn't, did I?"

"You sure did...let me get them."

Returning from the house a few seconds later, Chase handed the bag to Molly as she embarrassingly apologised for her forgetfulness.

"What would you do without me, huh? Just don't forget our date tomorrow!"

"Haha even I wouldn't do that."

Turning around to walk back to her farm, Molly couldn't help but find herself grinning like an idiot.

'Date...' she repeated over and over again in her mind, whist she happily skipped back to her farm.

* * *

><p>I REALLY need to stick my original plans. This chapter was supposed to just be the starry night festival, but the other ideas came into my head whilst thinking about it this morning. xD<p>

And no Kathy and Luke in the chapter! I'm quite proud of not having to rely on them to bulk out the chapter, for once.

Anywho, you know the usual! ;


	8. Chapter 8

.GOODNESS.

There are two reasons as to why this update was so slow,

My laptop broke, so I had to wait until I knew if it could be fixed or not before I was allowed to use my Mum's. (Which obviously means that no, my laptop couldn't be fixed.)

I originally started writing about the wrong festival LOL. SO I had to go back and change it around a bit. (I wrote about the Moon festival because I'm stupid, and had recently seen it on my copy of the game. )

Despite that, I hope that you enjoy this chapter! My apologies for the lateness of it because of those reasons! D:

Disclaimer: Harvest Moon does not belong to me bruvah!

* * *

><p>"What about this one?"<p>

"Too casual."

"This?"

"Too...over the top."

"Awww come on Mol, we're going to run out of freakin options soon!"

"Oooor, you're going to run out of floor."

"Luke! You're _not _helping."

As unhelpful as Luke was being, he was strangely right for a change. Sitting in the middle of the increasing pile of clothes, Molly frowned as she started to fold the once neat and perfectly in place garments, and piled them up on the bed next to her dresser.  
>Molly had never really been the type of girl to fuss over her appearance, let's face it-she's a farmer, her clothes are going to get filthy whatever she does. So naturally, she was perfectly fine with just going on her date with Chase in her usual bar attire, she was pretty sure he wouldn't even notice if she made an extra special effort for the night- she didn't see him as the sort of person to worry about those things either.<p>

Unfortunately for Molly, Kathy wasn't going to have any of that.

As soon as Molly told the girl about the 'date' which she was going to be having for the Starry Night Festival the day before, Kathy couldn't stop talking about it, getting ridiculously panicked about how it was all going to turn out. So obviously when she asked Molly what she was going to wear, and she simply responded with 'this', the girl stared at her like she had grown four heads.

"No..." she firmly stated. "YOU CAN'T WEAR THAT! WHAT WILL HE THINK OF YOU?"

So as much as Molly had protested, the said girl was now in her house, (After bringing along an also very reluctant Luke for a second opinion) practically destroying her clothes dresser in an attempt to find a suitable outfit.

Sighing as she stood up and stretched her legs, Molly looked over to Luke who she was worried Kathy was about to strangle after the previous comment. Apparently okay, he gave her a sympathetic smile before heading into the kitchen.

"I'm gonna make us some tea. I think we'll all need something to relax after this fiasco."

"Big word for you, Luke. Be careful with the kettle this time, I don't want scalding water to fly around the house like last time you made some tea."

"You know that was only because I tripped! I'm not THAT clumsy, and I know plenty of big words THANK-YOU-VERY-MUCH."

"Oh? Like wha-"

"OH MY GOODNESS MOLLY! THIS IS PERFECT!"

Walking over to Kathy to inspect what she had found, Molly was apparently oblivious to the curses and groaning which were coming from the next room; the loud shout had ironically startled Luke enough to drop the kettle again, thankfully with only cold water in it this time though.

"What did you find, Kathy?"

"This!"

Swinging around on her heel with a triumphant look on her face, Kathy held up the seemingly miracle piece of clothing for Molly to see, happy with he Luke which she received from her friend in return.

"I completely forgot that I had brought this! It's beautiful, but won't it be a little bit cold?"

"That's the point, if you get cold, then Chase has even more of a reason to cuddle up to you! Just like last time."

"L...last time?"

"Mhmm, we're not dumb Molly, we saw you two after the incident with Simon."

Heating up slightly, Molly snatched the clothes from Kathy and locked herself in the bathroom, mumbling something about her and Luke being stalkers before stripping down to adorn her newly re-found outfit for the night.

xxxxxxxx

"Where the hell is he...?"

Shivering as she clutched her clothes to her as close as possible, Molly desperately looked around for Chase.

It was only five minutes past their arranged meeting time, but for someone as paranoid as Molly, that was enough to send her into panic mode. Deciding to give it ten more minutes before she would just give up and go home, Molly paced around to keep as warm as possible.

...

"My watch just must be wrong...yeah that's it, the battery must be starting to run low."

Sighing as she lowered her arm, the young girl bit her lip to stop herself from trying to cry. Even though she had promised herself to leave after the ten minutes were up, Molly still found herself rooted to the same spot in which she had made that promise half an hour ago.

"Are you okay, Molly?"

Jumping slightly at the sudden voice behind her, Molly looked around quickly in hope – only to find Hamilton staring at her with a rather confused look.

Her heart dropping as soon as she saw the mayor standing before her, she managed a sad smile before fiddling with her hair awkwardly.

"Y-yeah I'm fine, just waiting for the stars like everyone else!" Laughing as she finished her sentence, Molly looked down at her feet, hoping that the man would get the gist and leave her alone.

Not entirely convinced, the kind-hearted, (but a blight nosey) Mayor put a supporting hand on Molly's shoulder before turning his attention over to Simon, who was busy scrambling about in the snow after apparently losing a piece of his camera equipment.

"Well, if you want some company to join when the moon does come out, then you're very welcome to come over to join the group of us 'oldies'!"

"Ahh...thanks."

Meekly waving as the energetic man ran off, Molly scanned the area one last time, noting the several couples which were now sitting on soft blankets whilst exchanging food and words, seeming to be completely wrapped up in each other's company.  
>Even Maya had a date for the night-she had seen the boy around before, Max was it?<p>

Finishing her scan and coming up with no signs of her own supposed date for the night, Molly decided that enough was enough, and it was time to head back home.

"He...He stood me up?" she whispered to herself as she still desperately tried not to cry, the effort this time however, being in vain.

Picking up her pace as she followed to snow-cleared path back to her farm, a few tears fell down her cheeks and onto her folded arms, the salty water making small dark patches appear on the delicate fabric which covered them.

"Molly...? Molly! Where are you going?"

'_It's probably just Hamilton Molly, keep walking, keep walking...'_

Almost running in an attempt to get away from the voice, Molly suddenly felt a warm hand grab a hold of her arm, almost causing her to stumble and trip.

"Hey, what do you think..."

Turning around about to give whoever grabbed her a thrashing, Molly just stared blankly as she came face to face with the man who she had been waiting for for the past half an hour. The man who had also made her _cry._

"You've been...crying?"

"Nice observation, Sherlock!"

Wiping her eyes with her sleeve as a scowl appeared on her face, she waited for an explanation from Chase, who was just standing silently looking as Molly composed herself once more.

"Well...?" she asked impatiently after she was done, re-folding her arms in an attempt to look more angry, which in reality, just made her look more cute.

"Why were you crying?"

"..."

"Molly?"

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No! I want to know why you were upset."

Blinking in confusion, Molly had to restrain herself from slapping him right there and then.

"Let me ask you something." She calmly began, placing a hand to her forehead, "Do you have a clock in your house at all, Chase?"

"No, my only one stopped working a couple of days ago, and I haven't had a chance to go to Barbara's store yet, why's that important?"

Shoving her watch adorned wrist in his face, Molly stayed silent for fear of what she could say if she opened her mouth.

"Crap, you're serious?" Taking her wrist and pulling it closer to his face, Chase practically pressed his eyes to the glass encased contraption to make sure that he was really reading the time correctly.

"Mhmm."

"Oh, Molly." Looking at her with genuinely sorry looking eyes, he felt a pang of guilt as he realised that he was the reason why she had been crying. "I'm sorry, I was cooking for us, and I guess...I guess I just lost track of time...you know how into cooking that I get. Ah what am I saying, I don't think there's any excuse for making you cry...just know that I really am sorry and-"

Stopping as he felt a small hand take a hold of his, Chase looked down at Molly who was now smiling beside him.

"You dope. I understand how much you love cooking, it comes as no surprise, really. But seriously, no clock in your house? I don't know whether to admire the fact that you can cook without using one, or slap you for being late and making me think that you had stood me up."

Letting out a sigh, Chase smiled back at the woman, shocked that she wasn't as angry as she had the right to be. Shocked, but hellishly relieved.

"That food better be good, though."

"Is that a threat? If so, you know my food is always good."

Both of them, now laughing, walked back to Moon Hill in a comfortable silence, apparently forgetting that they were still holding each other's hands.

"Hey...why are they all staring at us?" Frowning as she looked around, all Molly could notice were sets of eyes focused on the pair, and whisperings and slight giggling coming from the girls.

"You're being far too paranoid Molly, they're probably not staring at us at...all."

"What is it?"

Nodding his head downwards to indicate the linked hands, and the source of the gossip, Molly quickly let go and stuffed her hand into the pocket on her dress-shirt.

"S-sorry..." she mumbled, going back to her usual, embarrassed state of mind which she usually felt when people spotted her and Chase out together.

"It's okay, don't worry about it." Not denying that he felt slightly sad about the loss of contact, Chase quickly changed the subject by pointing out a sufficient space where the two could set up their 'late-night-picnic-kind-of-date.'

After having comfortably settled themselves on the blanket which protected them from the dewy grass, the pair were quick to start eating the snacks which had been prepared in order to find some more warmth.

"Man...Why can't these festivals be in the summer or something, it's far too cold out here."

"Well if it was in the summer, then there wouldn't be many stars to see, would there?"

For around an hour similar chatter continued, with a few token insults along the lines off 'oh you're so obsessed with cooking that you might as well marry your oven' and 'Well you're so into your farming that maybe you should just marry one of your cows' thrown in just to prove passer's by that they were still just friends, and weren't loved up at all. Nope, not one bit.

Finally running out of food and relevant topics to talk about, Molly leant back on her elbows to get a better view at the sky, which was now just beginning to be speckled with the glimmering form of the galaxy's stars.

"Hopefully we'll see lots of shooting stars tonight." She said dreamily, keeping her focus on the sky as to not miss any of the said objects.

Leaning back into the same position as her, Chase contemplated how beautiful the sky actually was, and how maybe the festival was actually a decent idea, a thought which was strange for the man who normally hated the communal and social kind of activity.

"Maybe, I'd be happy with just seeing one, though."

"Oh? What are you going to wish for?"

Looking over at Molly with a playful look on his face, he smiled at her childish innocence which the festival seemed to have brought to her.

"Well, I don't believe in this kind of stuff, but if I told you, surely it wouldn't come true?"

"Hmm...I guess you're right. It would be nice to know, though..."

"I'd like it to come true though, so sorry, I can't tell you."

"I thought that you just said that you didn't believe in that kinda stuff though hmmmm?"

"Oh, yeah, right...well I don't okay! Just...Argh, stop being annoying."

Looking away in embarrassment, Chase caught the sight of Molly chuckling out of the corner of his eye, before she looked back up to the stars again. He noted how beautiful she looked that evening, the glow of the stars only illuminating her soft features even more-so. He had never seen her in such an outfit, either. Sure, he saw her in that Halloween costume, which he wasn't going to think about in case..._problems_ aroused from the thought, but this outfit was...different. It still made her look stunning just as the cat costume had, but this time it was stunning in a different way. The red, almost velvet like fabric of the dress-top which she wore only brought out the colour of her hair and eyes even more, and the tight fitting black leggings which were neatly tucked into patent red boots, only made her legs look even longer and slender than what they already were.

"You look really beautiful tonight."

He said it without thinking, immediately hiding his face as he did so, prepared for either the deny of what he had just said, or being called a 'perv' for looking at her in that way.

"You...noticed? Thank you, it makes me happy that you said that. I put a lot of effort into looking good for yo-tonight!"

Being shocked for the second time that evening, it began to occur to the budding chef that maybe, just _maybe _Molly felt, or was at least beginning to feel, something towards him as well.

"You always look good, though..." Again, without thinking, he just said it. It felt weird coming out with phrases which he never thought that he'd say to anyone, but at the same time it felt good. Good in knowing that he could have feelings for someone and that by expressing how he felt he was also making another person happy. Chase decided that he liked the feeling which complimenting Molly gave him, and just wished that he could do it more often, not just on the dates which he sincerely hoped that they would go more on.

"Chase...um..."

"HEY LOOK IT WAS A SHOOTING STAR!"

Cut off in mid sentence by the excited cries of the other viewers, Molly and Chase quickly turned their heads back up to the sky in anticipation for the next shower of stars.

"Ready? Make sure that you say your wish three times Chase, or else it won't come true!"

Smiling at how eager she was, Chase managed to take his attention off of Molly for enough time to witness a star travel through the night sky. Quickly closing his eyes and blocking out the noise around him, he made his one wish three times as quickly as he possible could, before opening his eyes to see Molly doing the same thing, the look of concentration on her face almost childlike.

Apparently content with her wish, Molly opened her eyes and smiled at Chase, who immediately returned the gesture.

"Was that your only wish?" He asked tentatively, almost scared at what her answer would be.

"Yup! There's only one thing which I wanted to wish for, this year."

"Ah I see."

Silence surrounding the two again, they returned their gaze back to the sky, and sat enjoying the rest of the display of shooting stars until the last one had fizzled out and returned to the stationary speck of light which was always see on those clear, cloudless nights.

Hearing Hamilton announce the end of the festival, the couples on the field stood up and stretched, before packing their things away for another year.

"Don't worry, I'll fold the blanket up."

"Oh are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's mine after all."

Waiting for Chase to finish packing the things which he brought with him away, Molly looked around the area before spotting Kathy, who was being supported by Owen, after obviously getting drunk.

"Owen!" She shouted, gaining the attention of the few people who remained, " The key to Kathy's house is in her pocket, if you need to know how to get in!"

"Thanks Mol! I was just wandering how I was going to get in, actually!"

"No problem, make sure you look after her!"

"M-maybe...we should be telling that to...you two! Have fun...with each other tonight!"

"Kathy, shush."

"Oh...baby, you're always so in control."

Mouthing a sympathetic 'sorry' to Molly as he held his other free hand over Kathy's mouth to make sure she wouldn't make any more suggestive remarks, Owen dragged the intoxicated girl along, praying that Simon had already gone home so he couldn't take pictures of the fiasco which was going to be trying to get into her house.

Waving slightly until they were out of sight, Molly turned her thoughts and attention away from Kathy and back to Chase, who was now just finishing clearing up. She had hoped that he hadn't heard what she had said, but judging by the visible red on his cheeks (even in the darkness of the night) he most certainly heard the words.

"Ready to go?" She asked, deciding it best to not bring up the conversation.

"Yeah...can I walk you home? I don't like the idea of you walking all that way back by yourself."

"Um sure! Thank you, that would be a nice idea."

As they walked back, the two made small talk to avoid yet another silence, which seemed to work for the most part, until they reached the road to the farm.

As they arrived at the door to her house, Molly pulled out the key from her pocket before turning to face Chase to say her 'thank you's' for the evening.

"I should be thanking you really, Molly. I would have never have gone to a festival like this if I didn't want to spend some more time with you."

"Well...your welcome? I think..."

Smiling, Chase did the third thing that night without thinking. He moved forward and ruffled the top of Molly's hair before gently leaning down to kiss her forehead.

As she felt the contact, Molly gasped - she was unsure of what to do apart from nervously stare at her feet for what seemed like an eternity, before Chase realised what he had done.

"Oh, I...I'm sorry...I didn't know what...arghh, I've completely messed the night up even more now, haven't I?"

"N, No! Not at all. You've done nothing wrong Chase!" reassuring him, Molly blushed as she realised what was beginning to happen. "Besides...what you did kind of fits in with what I wished for..." thinking that he wouldn't be able to hear the last part of her sentence, she panicked when he heard a muffled 'oh'.

Shivering as she felt the cold run through her, Molly noticed how the lamps illuminating the street for the walk home were now turned off, making the road back to Flute Fields almost invisible due to the darkness . And when you couple that with the ice and snow, it made the journey back a dangerous and silly one to take.

Because of this, Molly almost instantly asked the right question, without even stopping to think about the further implications which it may have.

"Do you want to stay here for the night?"

* * *

><p>Hahaha I think that this would be a suitable place to end.<p>

I'm actually pretty pleased with this chapter! I'd just like to say, though, I apologise now for any mistakes in the typing, for some reason when I spell words wrong, the laptop automatically corrects them to the FIRST option which it see's which half of the time isn't actually the correct one LOL.

And yes I DID read this before uploading it, but you know how your mind reads what you think you've typed? D: I've probably missed a lot of mistakes because of that.

LIKE USUAAAAL reviews are loved, and thank you for reading this! It makes me very happy knowing people are something enjoying this. xD


	9. Chapter 9

I am not happy with this chapter. :c Well, I'm happy with the start and end, just not the middle. xD For those of you who expect some awkward 'oh hey, let's sleep in the same bed' or 'let's confess our feeling through inappropriate activities trololol' then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. xD

Just remember that their relationship hasn't fully developed yet!

This is also a shorter chapter than usual, since I felt it didn't really need to be dragged out any longer.

Disclaimer: Don't own Harvest Moon, bro.

* * *

><p>"...Excuse me?"<p>

"Well. You can't exactly walk home now, can you?"

"Why not?"

Turning around after being tempted to smack her head on her house door right then and there, Molly opted to just unlock the thing instead, the warmth from the inside hopefully prompting a slightly more sensible answer from Chase.

"Have you been spending time with Luke again? You seem to have lost some brain cells."

Looking over her shoulder and being met with a confused look on the man's face, Molly really did wander why she hadn't knocked herself unconscious on the door frame yet.

Well, Chase. Apart from the fact that it's now pitch black out there and you could easily fall of a cliff and into the sea, I guess that there really isn't a reason why you can't walk home after all. My mistake!"

Smiling at him before entering her house, Molly was just about to close the door when Chase finally snapped out of it.

"Now hold on a minute...do you really want to be responsible for me falling off a cliff?"

"No, so get in."

Pulling Chase in so no more heat would escape from the room, Molly quickly shut and locked the door behind her, adding a slight hint of worry to Chase's confusion as well. Noting this, the young farmer frowned as she went into the kitchen and set two mugs onto the counter, before flicking the switch to the kettle.

"Do you really think I'm going to do something bad to you? And here I thought that we now trust each other."

"It's not that." Chase began as Molly reappeared and directed him into the living room. "It's just what are people going to think? I mean, someone is going to see me leave in the morning. Hell, you had enough of a problem when Simon caught you and Kathy together."

"Well we'll just explain that it was impossible for you to walk home in the dark like this. You have to remember, the incident was Kathy was cleared up easily in the end...well, after you almost broke my nose and caused some damage with Luke's axe, but that's beside the point."

Smiling as he watched Molly flop onto the sofa, but immediately getting up again upon hearing the kettle click indicating that it's finished, Chase sat down on the adjacent seat, thankful that the seating area was a large one.

After she had made her way back into the kitchen, Chase looked around the room, noting how clean and orderly everything was. (Apart from the pile of clothes that sat in the corner near her bed, but that was different, he guessed.) Scanning around, a small picture frame which sat on a coffee table a few feet away from where he was sitting caught his eye.  
>Standing up, he walked over to investigate the photograph, a mixed feeling of both warmth and sadness running through him as he did so. There in the image, stood a young looking Molly –around the age of six or seven, he assumed. Next to her stood an almost identical figure to her, save for the different hair length and build of the two girls. What he assumed to be their parents stood behind them, one on either side like protective book ends. The Mother of which, was a spitting image of Molly. She had the same sparkly brown eyes and silky hair, and the smile of which was unforgettable- the same smile which Chase had come to love seeing on Molly, it was the type of smile which could calm even the most frustrated of people.<p>

"Here, I made us some-Oh I forgot I left that out!"

Setting the cups down on the table, Molly quickly went and took the frame out of Chase's hands. Even then she was still gentle in her actions, not nearly as violent as someone else would be if they caught another person snooping through their private possessions.

Looking at Molly as she stared sadly at the image herself, Chase wasn't really sure what to say. Should he ask if she was okay? Why she was so sad? Hell, should he apologise?

"I...I'm sorry, I didn't realise you didn't want people to see it."

"No it's okay...I left it out after all! Come on, let's sit down again."

After a few minutes of rustling about trying to get comfortable on the couch, silence enveloped the pair, the only sound disturbing the peace that of a clock's hypnotic rhythm.

"Is that...your family?" breaking the silence, Chase finally gave into his inquisitiveness.

Silently nodding as she took a sip of her beverage, Molly stayed silent for awhile, causing Chase to almost come out with another outburst of apologies.

"Yes, as you can tell the photograph was taken a while ago, though." She began after silently contemplating whether or not she should tell Chase about her family – it was generally viewed as a right of passage which mainly best friends and couples do, after all.

"I don't want to bore you with the whole history of it, but basically the girl you see next to me is my twin sister, Angela. Obviously, our parent's are behind us. My Mother...she died not too long after the photo was taken...at the time, Angela and I were too young to know what that meant however. We now know that she had some sort of lingering disease, which she refused treatment for. Shortly after she died, my father went into depression, and slowly deteriorated himself. As soon as Angela and I were old enough to leave home, he let go. Literally died of a broken heart, the Doctor's told us. .."

Painful memories of his own past filled Chase's mind as he stared at the girl, wishing he had never brought the topic up for either of their sakes.

"I'm sorry...I know you've probably heard that a lot, but I'm not sure what else to say. If it helps though, I had no parents from around the age when you lost yours as well." Laughing as he realised what he had said, he rubbed the back of his neck nervously before smiling at Molly. "Well, guess that doesn't help actually, does it?"

"Not really, but least you understand." Giggling slightly herself, Molly was debating whether or not to ask Chase about his own past, before the soft chiming of her clock brought her attention back to the present.

"Oh shit, one am already? The hell, we got back at about eleven fourty."

"Maybe your clocks wrong?"

"Oh, yeah, because your _totally_ the one to be criticising me about my clocks!"

Holding up his hands in defeat, Chase merely shrugged the comment off, not willing to get into an argument that late at night. Or that early in the morning, should he say.

"I swear, I'm going to drag you to Barbara's store to buy you a new clock as soon as possible! If you don't have one, you'll also start to be late for work, and Hayden will beat the crap out of you, which, quire frankly, I don't want to see."

"So...it would be like another 'date'?"

"A date? At a general store? Pssh of course Chase, because that's the most romantic thing which I can come up with. Man, give me some credit for once."

"Well then. If that's the case, I'll give you that credit when you prove to me that you can make a romantic date."

"You're so sneaky... You're on."

Smirking at his triumph, Chase let his mind drift off to the thoughts of what Molly could be planning, he had to admit, he was both excited and a little nervous wandering what it could be.

"Hey...are you going to sit there all night and freeze, or are you going to help me find some blankets?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Standing up, Chase stretched slightly before following Molly into her store room, and saving her when the blankets conviniently placed on the top shelf of the wardrobe fell down upon her.

"Hold onto them now that you have them." She said whilst rootling around for some pillows to complete the makeshift bed.

A few more minutes past as the two tried to arrange Chase's sleeping arrangements, obviously he wasn't going to be sleeping in the same bed as her, well, not yet at least.

"You know..." Molly began after she stood back to admire her handy-work. "I'll let you sleep with me if people weren't so suspicious about it as it is."

Blushing madly at the comment, Chase pinched his forehead with his fingers, wandering how someone like Molly could make innuendo's so easily without realising it. _'Get your mind out of the gutter, Chase! It's you whose taking it the wrong way...damn modern society, that's the reason why that sounds so inappropriate!'_

"Um...are you okay, Chase?"

"Just dandy Mol. One thing I have to say is though, you should probably think about what you say before you say it. Not that I mind, but it could get you into some sticky situations with other people eventually.

"Huh? Okay...thanks? I think."

Again confused by the girl's lack of understanding of what she just did, Chase decided that it was finally time for them to head to bed. Unfortunately for them, everyone had to resume their normal working life even after late night festivals, meaning that it was either a case of: 'sleep or less pay.'

Coming to a mutual agreement to just bear sleeping in the majority of their clothes (Minus a few jumpers and trousers) for modesty's sake, Molly and Chase finally settled down into their respective sleeping quarters-Chase on the couch, Molly in her own bed.

"Goodnight Chase..." mumbled Molly as she flicked the light switch to her bedside lamp off. "Again, thank you, it was one of the nicest times which I've had in ages...and I really do mean that."

Genuinely touched by her comment, Chase snuggled down further under the blankets, trying to hide the smile which was increasing on his face.

"I'm glad." He muttered back. "I didn't expect to have such a good time either. I really don't know why I haven't tried socialising more..."

"Hmm...that's just you, though. Anti-sociable Chase is the one which we all know and love!"

"Haha, I guess it does kind of define me now, doesn't it? However...I've come to realise that I like socialising with you, Molly. Some days, I just think that I wouldn't care if you were the only person which I saw all day..."

"Chase...you mea-"

_BANG_

_..._

"The fuck?"

Bolting up and cursing in unison, the two adults gently padded over to the window, the place in which said noise had come from. Before Molly did however, she grabbed the hoe which she keeps under her bed for safety, silently doing a victory dance in her head after thinking about all of the times Kathy had told her she was nuts for doing so.  
>Wrenching the window open (The logical thing to do when there could be a potential burglar outside, of course) Molly stuck the hoe out of the window, in the hope of knocking someone out if they were there.<p>

"Christ Mol, you're worse than Luke."

"SHUSH, we're supposed to be subtle."

"...I hardly call pulling a window open so hard you practically yanked it off its hinges subtle."

With a sigh, Molly pulled the hoe back through the window, and shut the panels tightly again.

"I'll never get to use it for defensive." She sadly exclaimed before climbing back into bed. "I seriously want to know what the hell that was though."

"Probably just a bird or something. Don't worry, whatever it is will pay if it hits the window again."

And with that, Chase and Molly finally settled down for the night, the events of the past few hours causing them to fall asleep almost instantly. Little did Molly know however, if she had just looked down out of the window, she would have found the cause of the noise.

...

"Come on Kathy, please stop spying on them..."

"No way...Owen...I want to see what will happen!"

"They're both asleep, Kath, nothing's going to happen."

"AWWW BU-"

Clamping a hand over his eccentric girlfriend's mouth, Owen once again tried a feeble attempt to pull her away from the window.

"Unless you want to almost get smacked by a hoe again, I suggest that you let me take you home."

Pouting whilst considering her options, Kathy eventually gave in and all but collapsed into her waiting boyfriend's arms.

"I need...to apologise to Molly." She announced, as she let Owen carry her bridal-style back to her house.

"Too right you do, even if she is you're best friend, it's not right to be spying on her."

"No no no...not that...I told her once that having a hoe underneath her bed was useless...so I need to say sorry 'cause she just proved me wrong!"

"Oh Kathy..." sighing as he wandered why he tried to deal with Kathy when she was this drunk, Owen decided to say no more as he carried the sneaky girl along the pathway, lighting up the way with one of many of his trusty torches.

* * *

><p>Hmm, Owen always strikes me as the type of person to have lots of torches, for some reason, which is where that comes from.<p>

Rushed ending is rushed. –sigh- Hopefully I can make the next chapter better.

Thank you for everyone who continues to read this, and also to those of you who review! It makes me really happy when you guys do.


	10. Chapter 10

Writing fanfic is a great way of putting off an essay which you don't know how to answer! Anywho, I like this chapter, and I hope that you enjoy it also! –goes off to fight with said essay now-

* * *

><p>"Ugh..."<p>

Blinking as sharp rays of light hit her face, Molly sat up in her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her half closed eyes. For once, it was a bright, crisp morning, and as she looked out of the window, Molly couldn't help but feel that it was going to be a beautiful day – no falling snow to have to bear working in, no clouds blocking out the sun's golden rays, just...wait, what was that smell?

"Oh God, I didn't leave the oven on again, did I?" panicking at the potential fire which could have broken out in her kitchen, Molly ignored the neatly folded sheets on the sofa, instead focusing her attention on avoiding a repeat of previous events. (Events which she wasn't going to tell anyone else choice fully, not now, not ever. 'Forgetfulness at its finest', as Kathy called it.)

"OhGodOhGodOhGod." Throwing open to the door to the room at risk, Molly stopped in her tracks when she noticed a familiar face standing at her work top.

"Chase?"

"Morning. Say Molly, you had some funny stuff in the bottom of your pot, so when I turned it on, this God awful smell started to waft around the room. What was in there, exactly?"

With another grunt, the now calming down girl slapped her hand to her head once again, recalling the last person to have used her cooking utensils. "Luke..." she mumbled before slouching into one of the kitchen chairs.

"Luke was _in_ the pot? The hell Molly."

"No! He wasn't physically IN the pot, but he was using it."

"Ahh..." turning his attention back his work, Chase decided to leave it at that, just knowing that Luke was the last person to use the cooking utensil enough to automatically answer all of his further questions.

"So...what are you doing cooking at this early hour?"Stretching in her chair, Molly focused her attention on the back of Chase, watching the swift and skilful movements which he made during his cooking, moving almost as if he was in a trance.

"Cooking breakfast, maybe? It's the least that I can do for you letting me stay here over night."

"It isn't that big of a deal, it's not like I made you anything...you practically made your own bed as well, after those sheets attacked me!"

"Well, you were looking out for me...I think that that's worth more than any material thing."

"You're getting so soppy lately, you know? Where's the Chase who normally insults me somehow in every sentence?"Finishing up her statement, Molly padded across the wooden floor and over to her bathroom, muttering something about how she 'looked like her cow had rolled over her', or a similar idea.

Staring down at the almost finished food, Chase let Molly's words run around in his mind.

"I...I don't know where's he gone. I think you took him away, Molly." He sighed as his thought about it, plating up the food, hoping that somehow the process would take his mind off of the subject.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Aww Chase! This is so good! I don't know why you put your cooking down so much."

"Thank you, Mol. But I'm not going to get _completely_ arrogant, until I better Yolander."

"That won't be too long, then." Piling up the plates after the contents on top of them had been well and truly devoured, Molly carefully set them down in the sink, before turning to Chase with a happy look upon her face.

"Well then!" she brightly exclaimed whilst clapping her hands together. "Since you're here, you can help me with my farm chores! And after that, we're going to take a trip to the general store."

Giggling as she watched Chase's eyebrows rise, giving her the 'you have got to be kidding me' look, Molly skipped over and pulled him up out of the chair, almost as if she was a small child again.

"Molly, I don't think that this is a good idea, I mean, I have no idea how work on a farm goes!"

"It will be fun, though, just you wait and see!"

Deciding that it was useless to protest, Chase let himself be dragged outside by an over-eager Molly, trying to remember the numbers on the numerous adverts for the accident claims which he had seen on tv.

"OKAY." Declared Molly, hands now placed on her hips in a very authoritative manner, "Since I haven't planted anymore buckwheat yet, all we have to do is tend to the animals."

'Oh, well that can't be too bad, right?' was Chase's final thought before he was taken inside of the animal barn.

As expected, he was wrong. Incredibly wrong.

After what seemed like endless hours of shovelling dirt and..._other _animal products, Chase thought that the task was finally done, until Molly pointed to the chicken coop next door. There, he suffered what he assumed to be was something pretty similar to hell itself – a large mix of plump chickens and ducks flew straight at the pair as they entered, pecking at their legs and squawking as loud as...birdly possible. In the midst of all the chaos which Molly had called 'feeding' she had ordered Chase to collect the plethora of eggs laid overnight, which admittedly wasn't a bad job, until the ones which had finished eating started attacking him. He tried to call for help, but it was in vain, all which he could hear above the tremendous noise was Molly shouting at her animals, telling them to 'calm the hell down!' and 'stop pecking each other on the butt!'

"Molly...how the HELL can you do this each day?" when the chores were finally done, an exhausted Chase collapsed against the coop wall, dusting of the pieces of straw and sawdust which clung to his clothing.

"Oh it gets easier after a while, once the animals begin to know you."

"I'll just take your word for it...so, what's next?" he asked timidly, scared of what the woman was going to be making him endure.

"Nothing!" flinging her arms up in the air like she was celebrating, Molly let the lid of the shipping bin fall back into place with a loud 'thump', indicating that today's profits were sealed.

"Great! You said you wanted to go to the general store right?"

"Yup, that's where we're going to go now."

Wiling himself to stand up, Chase wandered how Molly could do this every day, heck, sometimes even doing it on top of watering a field's worth of crops as well.

The walk which they took to the general store was a reasonably quite one, the only noise being the roar of the waterfall, and the idle chit chat which the couple made along the way, with not one insult being thrown. Molly had to admit, Chase's sudden change in attitude was really starting to make her worry.

'_Is it really a sudden change, though?'_

Molly decided that she would have to discuss the matter with Kathy later, since for now, they had arrived at their destination.

"HELLOOOO BARBARA!"

"Hey, Molly! And Chase, too? Well now this is a surprise."

Shifting on his feet at the suggestive tone in the store owner's voice, Chase decided to change the subject by asking why Molly had actually dragged him here in the first place.

"For a clock, obviously!"

Laughing slightly, Chase wandered why he hadn't figured it out sooner. "Well then, if you make me buy a new clock, then you have to buy a new pot! You'll get poisoned if you eat food made in that thing."

"A new pot eh, Molly? What happened to your last one?" The always curious Barbara made her way out from behind the counter, to lead the pair to the shops vast array of clocks on display, before indicating to where the pots where.

"_Luke_ happened."

"Ahh. That boy always breaks things, I swear that most of our store's profit comes from him." Shaking her head, the green haired woman retraced her steps back to her previous spot, leaving Chase and Molly to their own devices.

"How about this one?"

"No, it's far too bright for my tastes."

"Okay, then what about this one? Nice and gloomy."

"_Too_ gloomy."

Molly had never expected that buying a new clock was going to be such a difficult thing to do. Apparently Chase was just as picky when it came to choosing necessity's for his house, as much as a woman was picky when it came to choosing her clothes.

After several small arguments the two finally found a clock which they both agreed upon, and took it before either of them could change their minds. Next up was to find a new pot for Molly – this was less of a challenge as everything was pretty much the same save for the colours.

Making their purchases with a swift 'thank you', the two were about to take their leave, when Barbara called after them.

"Oh, and Molly! If I don't see you in the next couple of days, then happy birthday!"

"O-Oh...thank you so much, Barbara!"

"You...never told me that it was your birthday."

Looking down guiltily as she heard the hurt in Chase's voice, Molly just nodded her head, hoping that he wouldn't ask anymore about it. She knew that that was unlikey however, and she was right. As soon as she had nodded, she was barraged by a now angry sounding Chase throwing questions at her, the most protruding one of all being 'why'.

"Because..."she began meekly, overtop of the angry voice of her friend, "I haven't properly celebrated my birthday in years. I've had no one to celebrate it with, after all. I normally just cook something nice for myself and stay inside with my pets...that's how it's been for a long time now. "

"What do you mean you haven't had anyone to celebrate it with? Molly, you've been on this island for the best part of two and half years, you've made loads of friends, and yet you won't tell anybody when your birthday is?"

"I haven't got many great friends, Chase. Only you, Kathy and Luke really like me...sure, I'm pretty good friends with Candace and Phoebe too, but they're always so busy, being married and all..."

"Oh, Molly...what will we do with you?" giving her a sad smile, Chase wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked, causing Molly to blush at the sudden gesture.

"I, I don't know...maybe we can celebrate this year? Maybe..." giving it to the effect which she assumed the chef was trying to achieve.

"No maybe's about it! We're definitely going to celebrate it, Mol. Which is why we're heading straight to the brass bar right now to arrange something with Kathy!"

"Knowing Kathy she'll arrange something which includes tonnes of alcohol." Looking up at the man next to her as he laughed at her comment, Molly couldn't help but feel something. She knew she liked Chase, but this feeling was...different. Hearing him laugh, she decided, had become something which she had subconsciously come to strive for, desperately wanting to be the one which makes him happy.

She wandered...was this becoming more than something as simple as a crush?

* * *

><p>I promise that I'll start writing longer chapters from now on!<p>

Also, the part at the beginning with the oven is actually based on something which happened to me once lol. (A towel caught fire since we left the stove on and put it on top. From then on, My Mother's been really obsessed with checking that the oven is off at least 3 times before she goes to bed. One night, she was out, so didn't check, and when I woke up in the morning I could smell burning and panicked, but it turned out it was just my brother burning the toast.)

Your thoughts on this are loved like usual!


	11. Chapter 11

Woo, finally longer chapters again!

The way in which I wrote this chapter is not acceptable, just NOT acceptable. D: It's really choppy since I never even planned the middle, as I had a change of ideas halfway through. I apologise for that in advance. ;-; The ending to this I was originally going to wait until chapter 15 to do, but I was getting bored with the fact that nothing was happening, and I guess that some off you were also. (The amount of people reading this has gone seriously down the last couple of chapters. )

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

><p>"Good God it's getting cold."<p>

Shivering as the early morning frost hit her bare arms, Molly made a mental note that walking outside in the middle of winter in just your nightdress was NOT a sensible idea. Quickly scooting over to her mailbox so she could get back inside as soon as possible, she couldn't help but feel excited at what was going to be inside.

Today after all, was her birthday. _Her_ birthday. The one day a year in which she could give in to the attention and pampering which all of her friends gave her, without having to worry about doing a single thing in return. It may sound selfish, but the completely innocent and childlike look which adorned the young Farmer's face due to her anticipation of the day's events could make anyone, even the most cynical of people, forgot that one fact.

As she put her hand on the cold metal opening of the box, Molly paused as something shimmering to the left of her caught her eye.

"...How did you get there?"

"..."

There, to the side of her house, had appeared a snowman. A rather large one at that, the glimmering snow tightly compacted as to make sure that it didn't break apart. Quite comically, a small black top hat sat upon its head, whilst the traditional coal and a carrot finished off the rest of its facial features,

Beginning to flick through in her mind all of the possibilities as to why the snowman was there, Molly quickly crossed Chloe and Paolo of the list (As Paolo was scared of Molly's cows, so wouldn't come anywhere near the farm). Due to this, she came to the inevitable conclusion that it was none other than her blue-haired best friend who had prepared the model of snow.

Smiling as she shook her head in amusement, she pulled down the grey front of her mailbox, revealing a plethora of letters. Squealing in excitement, she gathered them up in her arms, like a Mother would a child, and turned to make her way back to her house.

"..."

"Huh?"

A slight crunching of the snow behind her however, made Molly turn her head to look at the place in which she had been standing just a moment ago.

"Must be those damn birds again..." she muttered whilst frowning, after realising that nothing had changed, before carrying on where she had left off.

"..."

"OKAY YOU BIRDS I'LL..." Once again turning around upon hearing the noise, she stopped her yelling as she now came face to face with the snowman, which she was certain a minute ago was to the side of the mailbox still.

"What the fuck?"

Earning another shuffle from the snowman in response, Molly couldn't help but wonder whether the stress in her life was finally starting to make her go crazy.

"Luke if that's you, you're lucky that it's my birthday, or else I'd completely beat the shit out of you."

"Well it's nice to know what goes on underneath that cute exterior of yours, Mol."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Backing away now quite alarmed, Molly tried to guess how far she was away from her house, planning to leg it back to the door without turning around if she could.

"..."

"Molly, as much fun as this is, can you please talk to me instead of the snowman?"

"But you ARE the snowman, Luke. I am talking to you."

As she began backing up towards her house, she was caught off guard by a tap on the back, causing the newly deemed crazy farmer to jump up out of shock, dropping the mass of letters as she did so. Then beginning to act out of instinct, she immediately swung around ready to make a punch at whatever had just tapped her, be it snowman or human.

"Holy cow, I didn't know you had it in you!"

Looking up as her punch was blocked, Molly's train of thoughts turned to something similar to 'crapcrapcrap what have I just done', as she made eye contact with who she originally assumed the snowman was.

"What the hell Luke..." was all she mumbled as she dropped her fist, trying to play it 'cool', so that he wouldn't get any joy out of her embarrassment.

"I could be asking you the same thing. Going crazy in your old age, eh?"

"Shut up." After lightly punching his shoulder, Molly bent down to retrieve the fallen letters, careful not to scoop up any of the thick snow as she did so.

"Open the door for me, Luke. After all, you made this happen in the first place." Turning around as she finished her sentence, Molly couldn't help but notice a flush of red appearing on said boy's face.

"What?" she asked worried at what the snowman might be doing behind her.

"Uh, Mol...your...your nightdress. You need to pull it down."

Glancing down, the girl in question turned a shade of red equal to her friend before her, as she noticed that in her attempt to scoop up her letters, she had also pulled the bottom of her dress up.

"Oh God, just open the door Luke, I can't do anything with all this stuff in my hands!"

"Well, maybe you could just give them-"

"JUST DO IT."

Not wanting to be on the receiving end of anymore of Molly's violence, a slightly recovering Luke completed her request, watching as the flustered girl rushed in and threw the letters onto her bed.  
>Rubbing the back of his neck with his hand sheepishly as she then proceeded to grab a fistful of clothes and run into her bathroom, Luke closed the door behind him, getting ready for what he predicted to be an eventful day.<p>

xxxxx

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVELY MOLLYYYY!~"

The events from earlier (And the snowman) now forgotten, Molly bounced up and down inside her house, waiting for the guests which Chase, with the help of Kathy and Luke, had invited over to celebrate her special day with. With Kathy herself now arriving, the birthday girl knew that it wouldn't be long before everyone else started to gather too.

Well, she would know if her best friend would let go of her, that is.

"Kathy!" She protested, whilst struggling for air, "Are you trying to...squeeze me to death...again?"

"Oops, sorry, it's just that I'm so excited! We don't get to celebrate that many birthday's a year, you know?"

"You know that this party doesn't involve alcohol, right?"

"Chase!"

Turning their attention to the blonde haired man now standing in the still open doorway, Molly and Luke had to hold Kathy back from lunging at him, after hearing his previous comment.

"Whoa, Kathy..." he calmly remarked, laughing slightly as Molly casually let go of the enraged girl, leaving Luke to do all of the work to hold her back, "You don't want Molly's cake to get bashed about now, do you?"

Staring each other down for a minute, Kathy eventually sighed and gave in. "Fine, but I'm only letting you off because I don't want anything to ruin Molly's day! One more comment like that though, and we'll take it outside..." finishing up her threat with a evil smirk on her face, Kathy went back over to Molly, who, along with Luke, were yelling something about how she should leave the cake alone.

Merely shrugging his shoulders and setting down the bag on a table, Chase watched the three for a moment, taking in just how happy Molly seemed to be.

"And it's my idea which is making her happy..." Smiling at the thought, he carefully pulled the cake out of the bag, and placed it on the highly decorated plate which he had also brought with him.

"OH MY GOD!"

Molly, upon sight of the cake, instantly rushed over to Chase and practically tackled him to the ground, squealing something incoherent.

"Mo-Molly!" he nervously stammered, trying his hardest not to focus his attention on her body which was sprawled out on top of him. "What are...you doing? People are watching!"

"Yeah Molly, you might have another 'accident' like earlier."

Upon hearing Luke's remark, Molly immediately shot up, apparently regaining control of her actions, and mind, long enough to realise that she could have potentially put them into an even more embarrassing situation.

"What..what happened...no, I don't even want to know." Closing his eyes tightly to lose any mental images which were now beginning to flood his mind, Chase shook his head sharply before sitting up again. "I'm just thankful that nobody saw us."

...Chase was going to regret those words.

If no one in that room believed that irony was a bitch, then they sure as hell were going to now. As soon as the words left the chef's lips, the door swung upon to reveal the invited residents of Garmon Mine, along with Candace, who was being escorted by Julius.

"What are you doing on the floor, Chase?" Owen bluntly remarked, before either forgetting or just simply not caring about his previous question, and bounding over to Molly, who was greeted with a large bear hug from the muscular guy.

"My my, Chase, it seems like we missed something didn't we now?"

Sighing as he took the extended hand of Julius, Chase dragged himself up before slightly smiling at the flamboyant man. "No, you didn't miss anything. Nothing unusual, at least."

"Oh."

Mentally punching himself as he noticed the blush which was appearing on Candace's face, Chase reminded himself to not make anymore accidental suggestive remarks that evening.

xxxx

As the last guests Renee and Anissa arrived, Kathy stood up on Molly's coffee table and whistled to get everybody's attention.

"So." She began, a huge smile spreading across her face, "I know that this isn't exactly going to be party of the year, but I think that it's more in Molly's nature to have a small gathering. I think I'm speaking for everyone when I say that the night, without alcohol, loud music, or rowdy nature, might I add, is going to be enjoyed by the lot of us!" Throwing her arms up in the air as she was met by a loud cheer, she jumped down off the table, and Luke immediately took her place.

"Guys, be careful with my coffee table! Especially you Luke, I already had to buy a new pot this week!" Her statement earning a laugh from the rest of the guests, save from Luke, who had playfully crossed his arms and was now pouting at her, Molly signalled for him to say what he intended too.

"Well, I just wanted to add on to Kathy's speech, and say that I hope Molly knows just how much we all love her, particularly a few of us in here tonight." Scanning his eyes over the room, landing on Kathy and then onto Chase, Luke winked at the latter causing him to become even more embarrassed, recalling a conversation which they had had during the spontaneous planning of the gathering the couple of days before. "Now, this is beginning to sound like a freakin' wedding, so let's just get on with the thing!" Pumping a fist in the air as he did a dramatic jump down from the table, Luke signalled for Chase to follow him into Molly's kitchen, claiming that he just wanted to check something out, when Molly suspiciously eyed them up.

"Okay, but just don't touch that new pot, okay?" She reminded him sternly, before being greeted with a hug and a gift from Anissa.

Rolling his eyes at her, Luke pushed Chase into the room before following, making sure that he securely closed the door behind him.

"So, you still up for doing this?" he asked, eyeing the nervous man up and down.

"I don't know, Luke...not with all these people here. I think it would be bad for both of us."

"That's why we're going to wait until everybody has gone! Dude, don't worry, it will all work out really well, trust me."

"I hate to say it, Luke, but I do trust you. You've been friends with Molly for God knows how long, so I think that you should know her by now."

Nodding at the man's remark, Luke gave him a sad smile before heading back over towards the door. "You're a really lucky man, you know?" he added just before he reached for the handle, "I think that a lot of guys would want to have a girl like Molly, including myself..."

"Luke...?" not being able to say anything, Chase was saved (Well, in a bad way) by a loud, high pitched scream emitting from the other room.

"God, what have they done?" Throwing open the door, the two men were all about to get ready for some action... Until they saw Molly now rolling around on the floor with Candace instead of Chase, after apparently been given the dress which she had been eyeing up for a long time.

"I love you Candace! Thank you so much!" she squealed, whilst the stunned seamstress beneath her tried to find something to say in response, which was hard enough for the girl as it is.

"Okay Molly! I think you should get off now, Julius is watching." Picking her up off the floor, Kathy turned her attention to other waiting gifts, allowing Julius a chance to pick Candace up also.

"Oh, thank you Kathy." He exclaimed whilst grasping her hand, "But I was actually quite enjoying it, and I know that you also feel happy about it too, Candace."

"Y-yeah..."

Looking on as the commotion continued, Chase decided to flop down in one of the kitchen chairs to make sure that nobody ruined his cake for Molly, whilst Luke ran off into the crowd of people, most likely to cause even more chaos. Scanning around the room, he noticed the girl dancing around with Renee and Phoebe, two other people who she had grown close too over the past couple of years.

"And she thinks that she has barely any friends..." he sighed as he leant on the perfectly polished wooden surface of the table, supporting himself with one fist placed to his cheek. He really did hate social gatherings, especially loud ones such as this...but since it was Molly that this was for after all, he thought that he could bear it.

'_You're lucky, you know.'_

Thinking about Luke's words, Chase couldn't help but wonder what he had meant. Sure, he had a pretty good idea of what it was, but...he just didn't want to believe it. Was it really alright for him to continue on with this plan now that he had told him such things? Or was that Luke's idea all along – to confuse him, to put him off so that nobody would ever win over Molly.

"Hey, Chase..." looking up out of his daydream, the man in question came face to face with Molly, who had what appeared to be a worried look upon her face.

"What's wrong? Are you not having a good time?" he asked automatically, not caring that he was actually showing some emotion for once.

"No no, I'm having an excellent time, it's just that...YOU" she said, whilst poking him rather sharply in the shoulder "seem to be unhappy."

"I've just got some stuff on my mind...you can thank Luke for that."

"Hmm, Luke hasn't seemed himself either tonight; he's been almost..._too_ energetic." Furrowing her brow in confusion, Molly stared at Chase, almost as if just by looking at him she would get some answers.

Chuckling at how cute she looked, Chase was quick to rise to his feet, taking Molly's hand as he did so. It would be bad for her to find out even one slightest thing about the conversation between himself and Luke, he reasoned.

"Come on." He said whilst pulling her back into the crowd of people. "I'll dance with you if you don't ask any more questions."

Seeing the offer as too good to resist, Molly was quick to comply, taking Chase's other hand and dancing as wildly as she possible could with him, making the most out of what she assumed to be a rare opportunity.

The night carried on in a similar fashion, full of laughing and dancing, with the occasional argument. This was only natural however, considering the nature of the men who were there – Owen and Luke must have wrestled with each other at least four times, and Kathy and Anissa had a few spats about who was better dressed for the occasion. All was played out in a good nature however, will all bouts ending in either laughing, bear hugs, or (sometimes forced) apologies.

Finishing the event with the eating of cake, which was very well praised, the guests finally began to leave one by one, wishing Molly all of the best on their way out. Kathy and Candace were going to stay with Molly for the night, for a 'girly' sleepover, as Kathy deemed it, which Molly could only assume meant one thing: there was some information which they wanted to extract. That, or they wanted to offer her their 'help', If you could call it that.

"Bye Molly! I'll come back over with the Chick which I promised you tomorrow!"

"Thank you so much, Renee! Take care on your way back!" Waving as Renee, the 'last' guest left, Molly sighed in exhaustion and paced back into her house, ready to help Chase pack away the last of his utensils which he had brought along with him.

"Oh..." Looking said as she realised that he had already finished, Molly made her way back over to the door, ready to greet him goodnight.

"Um, Molly..."

"What's up?"

"Can I...talk to you outside please?" Nervously shifting from one foot to the other, Chase prepared himself for what he was about to do.

"Uh sure..." warily glancing over to Kathy who just smiled at her in response, Molly followed the man outside, pulling the door behind them.

"I just wanted to say..." he quickly began, "I hope that you liked the evening. I know you normally don't like this sort of stuff, but-"Being cut off by Molly tightly wrapping her arms around his neck, Chase was pretty sure that he had gotten his answer.

"Of course, silly! It was great, I don't know why I don't do these things more often." Answering just to reassure him, Molly then proceeded to look up at the man who she had a hold off, looking at the delicate pink which adorned his cheeks.

"You know, though..." she began quietly, talking in almost a whisper, "You've been acting funny all night, almost like you were trying to hide something."

"What? Don't be stupid, why would I..."

"Give me a bit of credit, Chase. I know something's wrong. What happened between you and Luke when you went off together for a while?" Staring at him intently, Molly was determined not to let go off him until he gave her some answers.

"If...you really want to know then..."

'_It's now or never, I guess.'_

Taking in a deep breath as he prepared to finish his sentence, his looked directly back at Molly, and began his speech which he knew was either going to make or break their deepening relationship.

"Molly...me and Luke, we were discussing you." Pausing slightly to take in her confused expression, Chase wrapped his own arms around Molly before continuing, "I had told Luke a while ago that I, well...that I like you, Molly. A-and...God why am I so nervous...we planned that I should tell you tonight, but then he said something which made me feel bad about doing it and-"

"Chase..."

Frowning as he looked down at her, he noticed the same shade now adorning her delicate features also.

"Are you going you keep cutting me off all night?"

"Well, you already said that you like me... tha-that is your point, right?"

Looking down at his feet, Chase realised that he had done it...and not come to the reaction which he had been hoping for. "Y-yeah...but I'm guessing, I shouldn't have, right?"

Smiling nervously, he let go of Molly and tried to break free of her grasp, which she only tightened.

"Molly?"

"You're nearly as stupid as me, you know. "

"What?"

Shocked as she pulled him back to her, Chase could only stand rooted to the spot like a statue as the girl which he had pretty much just confessed too brought their faces closer, and pressed their lips together in a soft, but reassuring kiss.

As she let go as quickly as she initiated it, Molly stared down at her feet, just as nervous as he was now.

"If...If you want to discuss this properly..." she began, whilst lacing and de-lacing her fingers together, " then meet me at the lighthouse tomorrow afternoon...I-I want to do this properly, not just randomly late at night."

Blinking a few times to take in what she had said, Chase eventually lost his statue status, and took her hands in his own.

"Okay." He said, gaining her attention again."I'll meet you there at around four..."

Swallowing as she gave him possibly the most genuine smile which he had ever seen, he leant forward and pressed his lips to her, wanting her to know that he did appreciate what she had done first. Standing there for a few moments as she pressed back, Chase finally pulled away, letting of of Molly hand's in the process.

"You better be there tomorrow." He quietly said over his shoulder, as he made his way down the path.

"Oh I will, I was the one who asked, after all."

Watching him until she was out of sight, Molly contently headed back towards her house, wandering how she was going to explain this to the waiting Kathy and Candace inside, who she just knew would have been watching through the window.

* * *

><p>Bah, I thought that I would be bad at writing the kiss scene, but I didn't realise that it would be THAT bad. xD<p>

Ah wells, that's what you get for not planning. ;-;

I'm sorry for the what, 9 or 10 day wait for this chapter as well. I've been busy, and I wanted to write a long chapter so I had to wait until now to do it.

Updates will be a LOT more frequent after the next week and a half, when we finally go on summer break!

Thank you as usual, and reviews are loved, as also like usual, they let me know what you like and don't like about the story. :3


	12. Chapter 12

You know, as soon as I wrote in the last chapter that updates would be more frequent, they instead do the opposite and slow down even more than usual. I should have really guessed. xD I don't have any reason as to why that is, so I'm sorry. :c

Nothing more to say here apart from I really hope that you enjoy this next chapter!

* * *

><p>"Don't you go near that closet!"<p>

Running out of the bathroom and into her own room, Molly was quick to stop an eager Kathy from repeating the events of the starry night festival. Thinking back to the pile of clothes which were thrown on her bed, Molly was reluctant to spend the same amount of time neatly folding and stacking them away again, which is made even more time consuming when you have a slight OCD complex like herself.

She also swore that Chase had caught a glimpse of some of her private garments as well, which didn't exactly help to relieve the awkwardness of the night.

...Why was she thinking about him staying over again so soon?

"Come on Molly, no time for those perverted thoughts now!" Shoving some clothes into her arms, Kathy pushed the young woman back towards the bathroom, grabbing a comb and some hairpins along the way.

"Kathy..." Moaning, Molly wandered just why she had to go through all of this preparation for a question which she pretty much already knew the answer too.

Well, she hoped that she knew the answer, at least.

A short while later after nearly having her head yanked off by vicious brushing, and nearly choked to death by copious amounts of perfume, Molly was ready, something which she thanked the Harvest Goddess for.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she was pleased with what Kathy had achieved: she wore a light pink dress with white lace trimming at the edges, and patent boots of the same colour which had a small bow at the top of the buttons. Raising her hand up to her hair she felt a small, soft hairpin, which upon examination turned out to be a flower.

"Chase likes hairpins, doesn't he? I put it on the same side as his, he seems the type of person to pick up on these little things, even if he doesn't show his appreciation for it."

Looking towards the voice and smiling, Molly was shocked when she was pulled into a tight embrace.

"Kathy? What's wrong?" worriedly, she hugged the girl back, squeezing tighter when she got no response.

"I'm happy for you, Molly." She began quietly, "But I can't help but be sad that you'll be spending a lot of time with him from now on. It scares me slightly - You're the only real friend which I have around her after all."

"Oh you know that won't be true!" forcing herself not to cry, Molly pulled back and looked her friend directly in the eyes. "You never once left me after you and Owen got together. And that was ages ago now! What makes you think that I'd ever leave you? I love you far too much, you know that."

"Mol...thank you...I-wait a minute." Looking around the corner of the door to catch a glimpse of the clock, Kathy gasped before grabbing Molly by the arm and literally shoving her out of her own door.

"It's already 20 to 4! Hurry the hell up or else he might leave!"

"Me hurry up? It was you who took so long faffing about with what I looked like!"

"Well-"

"Ladies, please."

Stopping mid rant, the girls looked around trying to locate the voice, which appeared to have no owner, until Molly remembered the events of yesterday.

"Is that you again, Snowman?"

"What the fuck Molly? I always thought that sheer amount of farm work would cause you to go completely insane one day, but not so soon."

"Excuse me, Miss, but she isn't insane. As I recall, you heard me as well."

A few seconds passed before anyone decided to speak again, Molly switching her gaze between the snowman and Kathy, who were both staring at each other like they had never seen a similar species in their life. (Which was understandable in Kathy's case. It's not like you see a talking snowman all of the time.)

"Umm..." shifting nervously on her feet, Molly considered what options she had to deal with the situation. " Kathy I'll explain it too you later, just stay here for now and sit down somewhere, he won't hurt you, okay?"

Deciding that it was best not to waste anymore time, she ran off down the farm's path as quickly as possible, ignoring the confused yells which Kathy was sending after her.

...

It didn't take her long to reach Harmonica Town, and soon enough the lighthouse was in sight. The only problem which Molly found however, was there seemed to be no one else there.

"Oh you can't be SERIOUS."

Slowing down to a halt, the rancher stopped for breath and took one last look around, only noticing the familiar white cat which she assumed lived in the lighthouse. Sighing, she bent down to pet it, deciding that maybe she should give it a few more minutes until she completely gave up. She still remembered the starry night festival after all – only this time she knew for a fact that he had a working clock, and it wasn't like he had to make any food this time, right?

She smiled as the snowy cat nuzzled into her open palm, working her way around her body until she reached her bag. Sniffing intently around it, she let out a small 'mew' as she pawed at a certain area of interest.

"Oh, I have some clams which I collected off the beach in here." Unzipping the cloth she fished around the contents of her bag, guiding her hand through the other objects which lay within it; Sakura seashells, seaweed, mushrooms, some other unidentifiable things, and a small, marble edged mirror which Kathy insisted she kept in her bag from now on.

"Ah here we go, have this."

_Mew?_

Staring at Molly like she was an idiot (Which she was sure cats did most of the time anyways), the cat lowered her gaze to the clam, giving it one swift tap before looking back up at its giver.

For a few minutes there was silence, until it finally clicked that Molly had to actually open it first.  
>Placing the rough shell between her two hands, she began to attempt to pull it open, only to fail miserably as the object slipped from her grasp. Frowning, she retrieved it and started attempt number two, which only met the same outcome.<p>

"...Let's just smash it."

Just as she was about to pound the uncooperative shell on the ground, Molly was stopped by a hand grasping her small wrist.

"I'm pretty sure you don't open clams like that."

Looking behind her, Molly's deep brown eyes met an amethyst pair, which she knew could only belong to one person.

"Chase?"

"Glad that you remember my name." He sarcastically remarked in response as he let go of her wrist, bending down to be on the same level as her and the cat.

"I can feel my sarcasm meter tingling, guess you broke it this time."

"Only just? Guess my skills are slipping, huh? Give me that thing here...you'll slice your fingers open again if you carry on trying to open it like that."

Pouting as she handed it over, Molly watched as the renowned chef expertly opened the shellfish, breaking off one part of the shell before placing it back down in front of the cat. Smiling as she quickly ate it, the pair watched as it cleaned itself after the meal, giving them a short 'mew' which they assumed was a thank you, before running down the lighthouse path after a stray moth.

"You really are too kind, Mol. You'll be having a barrage of animals waiting outside of your house before long."

"I'm not that bad...the cat always looks lonely every time I come here, is all. I know what it feels like, so I can't help but pet and feed her. It's some happiness, right?" Standing up and dusting off her knees, the young farmer looked up at the chef expectantly, anticipating another sarcastic remark.

The remark never came, however. Instead, Molly felt her small hand being grasped by a slightly larger one, before being pulled away from the edge of the lighthouse bank.

"Come on..." Chase muttered, clearly embarrassed, "let's get away from the edge before you do something stupid like fall in."

Giggling as she got her expected remark, Molly was thankful that her somewhat rude friend hadn't lost his touch just yet.

"So..." he began, stopping and turning on his heel so that he was facing her. "You said to meet here right? Well, I'm on time so you don't need to yell at me, and I just helped you out, stopping you from injuring yourself in the process, so I think that you owe me an explanation."

"An explanation of what? I think it's pretty obvious why I wanted to talk to you here..." Looking down, Molly shuffled her feet nervously. Apparently confessing your feelings to someone is easier said than done.

"I know, but...I know what you want to say, and I'm completely willing to do it for you. But when you said that you wanted to 'do this properly' last night, you just sounded so determined, that I decided that you should really be the one who asks. Unless now...you're reconsidering what you want...and if that's th-why are you laughing?" Stopping mid-sentence, Chase looked at the girl in front of him who was now clutching her stomach out of laughter.

"It's j-just..." the girl in question started, quickly losing herself in the joke once again, "the way you worded those sentences just sounded so..._wrong_. Seriously, I'd have LOVED to seen the reaction of someone listening to that!" Grabbing Chase's shoulders so she wouldn't fall down completely, Molly felt herself being straightened up by him, before hearing him sigh as she collapsed completely into his supporting arms.

"Moll-"he tried to begin, being cut off by more of the incessant laughter.

"Mol-"

"MOLLY WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?"

Stopping her laughing immediately, the girl's eyes widened in shock, along with the rest of the residents in Harmonica town who heard the yell of the question.

"I...I..." she stammered for a moment, not entirely taking in what she had just heard.

Blushing as he looked away, Chase ignored the thumbs up which Paolo and Owen were giving him from outside of the bar, deciding that the fishery was a much more interesting object all of a sudden.

"...Yes."

Quickly turning to face the owner of the voice, Chase took a few times as he tried to fully take in the answer to his question.

"You idiot, don't look so surprised! Of course I was going to say yes...as you pointed out, I was the one who asked you here in the first place."

"Ah, I know...but you can't be too sure, I guess? I mean...just come here before I make a further fool out of myself."

Pulling her towards him, Chase sealed the agreement with one swift kiss, before pulling away again, much to Molly's displeasure.

"Molly, there's several people watching." He exclaimed before she could have the chance to complain.

"Oh..." looking rather disappointed, she clutched hold of Chase's hand once again, her face growing hot as she noticed several winks coming from the numerous bystanders.

Smiling, Chase gave her hand a slight squeeze, causing her to look up at him again. 'Later' he mouthed, laughing slightly at the huge smile which spread across Molly's face.

"Come on, let me walk you home."

Thanking all of the villagers kind remarks and 'congratulations' as they passed by, Molly couldn't help but feel that she hadn't felt this much happiness since she had been on the island. Smiling as she walked back home, she still couldn't quite take in that Chase was now her boyfriend. Her _boyfriend_. The man which she had been chasing for ages was finally hers, and she believed that nothing could take away or add to the warmth which she felt in her heart at that moment.

Unfortunately for Molly, she was wrong about that. Nothing could have ever prepared her for what she found when they reached her home again.

* * *

><p>I had no clue how to write that ending paragraph and line, which is probably why it doesn't make too much sense. Well, I had the idea, just didn't know how to write it so it sounded good. xD Fail.<br>Anyhoooow...I hope I didn't let people down with this chapter! I feel like it was one I really needed to get right, which is why I didn't drag it on any longer than necessary.

I'm sorry that the chapter isn't really that long, but I'm really not good at writing 4000-5000 word chapters. :c I'm really sorry since I know some of you have been saying you prefer long. D: Actually...what would you class as long? xD Then maybe I can try to work around that as much as possible.

Thank you for continuing to read this!


	13. Chapter 13

Has it really been two months since I started writing this? Wow. xD This is kind of like a two part chapter thing again, since I think it would be too boring/much all for just one chapter. xD And besides, you can speculate in between! ;D

I just want to say thank you for those who continually review ( I LOVE the fact that you do. it makes me so happy. :'c ) and for those new reviewers which I've been getting! :D And just a general thanks to everyone who is following this, basically. X3

Anyways, on with the chapter! xD

Disclaimer (Since I've been forgetting to put one): I don't own Harvest Moon, so stfu.

* * *

><p>The walk which followed the confession was a silent one, the two lovers grasping each other's hands tightly while they snuggled into their collars desperate for some warmth. They had been outside for a while, after all, the sea breeze stinging their cheeks and exposed skin with its frosty spray. Molly felt this especially and making a mental note, she told herself to not take Kathy's fashion judgement over her own in the middle of winter again.<p>

As they reached the beginning of the path leading to her house, Molly felt a shiver run down her as a particularly cold swirl of wind passed by. Looking up out of her collar to determine how far away they were, and whether it would be a good idea to just run the rest of the distance, she frowned as she saw the catch to her mailbox lifted up, signalling that something had been delivered.

"Is something wrong?"

Looking up at Chase, Molly smiled slightly inside at the hint of concern in his voice. "I never normally get mail during the day..." she muttered, sighing as she thought of the possibilities of what it could be – bills, overdue loan dates, requests, all of the usual type of things which irked her.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, probably just some more bills or something."

"Gee, thanks. That makes me feel a lot better knowing that I have to fork out even more money to this place, as if I haven't done enough for it already."

Smirking at her reaction, Chase let go of her hand, repositioning it along with the rest of his arm around her waist as they approached her mail, shuddering when he felt the cold hit it after being nestled in another for so long.

"Well, might as well see how much I have to pay now rather than later" Molly began, ignoring the sting of the icy metal as she opened it, "Least I can get over a panic attack before I have to walk back to the Town Hall that way..." reaching in, she grabbed the letter which appeared to not be a bill at all. Instead, it was littered with stamps of approval and ink markings showing it had been delivered by airmail, notably from somewhere a while away.

For a moment she traced the neatly printed handwriting on the front with her pale finger, vaguely remembering a time in which she used to see it often. Flipping it over, she began to carefully try to peel of the seal without ripping the letter, something which was made difficult when you were as cold as she was.

She fumbled about with it for a few more seconds, cursing as the sharp edge of the paper glided across her finger as she finally made her way into it. Skimming down to the bottom of the page, her eyes widened in shock as she saw who the sender was. She handed Chase the now empty envelope, ignoring his confused looks due to her composure, his soft whispers of 'what's wrong?' falling on deaf ears. Shakily, she smoothed out the paper, and began reading the letter from the top:

_Dear Molly,_

_I hope this letter finds you, I sent several to the wrong address, not realising that you had moved home again. It took me a while to actually track down someone who knew it themselves - thankfully Uncle Jack knew it when I finally contacted him. Remember how he always used to know everything? He would always know when we were in trouble as children, and when I was putting the blame on you when I was really the guilty culprit. It's sad to see how far our family has grown apart, I'm not even sure if you're married or not yet! Hell, you could even have children for all I know. That's why, Molly, I really wanted to find you. And now that I have, I'm going to be coming to visit you. By the time you get this letter, I should have the route planned out, the boat tickets paid for, and everything set in place for my journey. I regret being mean to you when we parted, Molly. It's haunted me ever since we left each other, which is why I want to try and rekindle out relationship- there's not much left of our family, after all. I obviously don't expect to be welcomed with open arms, but to be given a chance is all that I really want._

_Please Molly, I've improved since we last met, and I promise I won't hurt you again._

_With all my love,_

_Your twin sister Angela._

After reading the letter Molly stood still for a few minutes, staring at the name of her sister printed at the bottom. Surely she should be happy that she was going to see her sister again after so many years, right? But for some reason, she couldn't help but feel scared – Angela didn't exactly have the greatest reputation, after all.

Biting her lip, the young farmer scrunched up the letter in her palm and ran into her house, slamming the door open hard enough that it woke the sleeping Kathy inside.

"M...Molly?" She meekly said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she sat up on the couch. "What happened? If Chase upset you then he's..." trailing off as Molly locked herself in the bathroom, Kathy sighed as she turned her gaze to the figure standing at the door. "What did you do to her you asshole?" There was a hint of anger in her voice, which only rose as Chase calmly walked through the door, closing it softly behind him.

"Well?" she insisted as she stood up, placing her hands on her hips for emphasis.

"Do you really think I would do anything to upset her?" Chase sighed at his response, throwing the empty envelope onto the table.

Walking over to the same place, Kathy carefully picked the object up and inspected it, before turning to Chase again; "Who's it from? Is this what's made her get like this?" She asked, waving the piece of paper in front of her as she looked at him, her brows knitted together in a frown.

"I have no clue...she just read the letter, stood shock still for a minute, then ran in here."

"Hmm..." Studying the handwriting on the now manhandled envelope, Kathy racked her brain as she remembered seeing the writing somewhere before.

"Hey, Chase, can you..." cutting herself off with a gasp as she recalled where she had previously saw the handwriting, Kathy quickly hurried over to the line of birthday cards and messages which Molly had received, each one lining the edge of her window sills nicely. Picking through each of them until she found her match, Kathy's look of confusion turned into a sad one as she made her way back over to the bathroom door, gently rattling the handle to gain Molly's attention.

"Mol..." she gently said, shushing an even more bewildered Chase as he tried to interrupt, "You have to come out honey, you're not going to make the situation any easier for yourself if you stay locked up in there."

Waiting patiently in the silence for a few moments, Kathy smiled slightly as she heard some incoherent murmurings coming from the other side of the door, before a lock clicked open and the door opened itself slightly.

"Come here." Pulling the door open fully, Kathy took Molly's hand and dragged her over to the couch, ignoring her pleas of just letting her stay locked up in the bathroom for the next two weeks.

"You come here, too." She called over her shoulder to Chase, who had just proceeded to stand in the middle of the room out of not knowing what the hell was going on. Reaching forward to grab the box of tissues which also adorned the small coffee table (For use during the films of the 'oh I won't get upset at this but end up crying anyways' variety) Kathy pulled out several and shoved them in the lap of her friend, not wanting to cause any nosebleeds if she tried to lean over and clear up Molly's face herself. (They only had a small supply, after all.)

Seating himself down in the chair opposite, Chase looked at Molly who was wiping her eyes with said tissues, sniffling slightly as she began to get over her crying. His face also forming a sad frown like Kathy, he tried to think of a time in which he had ever seen her as upset as she was now, and failed. Heck, even when her very first and most prized chicken died of an unknown illness she still smiled throughout her crying, claiming that 'she was no longer in pain, so she shouldn't be crying over it'. But now, whatever it was she had read was making her pretty little face become one showing a look of worry and nervousness.

He didn't want to see her like this again.

It was hard for him as well, in a way, not knowing what was going on so he couldn't help her. Switching his gaze over to Kathy, he gave a hopeful look, telling her to find out what was wrong so that he- _they_- could help her anyway which they could.

Nodding, Kathy put her arm around Molly's shoulders and pulled her into an embrace, taking her used tissues and attempting to throw them in the bin near where they were sitting, only to miss and cause the girl to giggle instead.

"So what did she say in the letter, Mol? Must have been pretty bad to get you this worked up over it." The slightly older girl began as she smiled at Molly's giggle, the small sound indicating her slightly increasing mood.

"Angela...she says she's coming to visit, Kathy. And not giving me a choice of whether she does or not. It's not like I'd be able to stop her anyways..." burying her face in the top of Kathy's shirt, she smiled as she felt the woman's hand softly stroke her hair.

"Visit? But she hasn't even sent you a letter in years, until yesterday when you received a random birthday message from her."

"I know..." lifting her head up for some air, Molly sat up and reopened the letter, handing it over to Kathy for her to read herself. "But she said she has only just found my address. It makes sense, since I've moved a lot since we lost contact."

"But...isn't it a good thing that you're finally going to see your sister which you haven't seen in years again?" Chase finally chimed in, confused as to why Molly was so upset over her sister's imminent visit. "I mean, you told me yourself that you had no other close family left."

Shaking her head, Molly smiled slightly at his simple logic, but at the same time kicking herself on the inside for never telling him any of this before. He means just as much to her as Kathy does, after all.

"It's not as simple as that." Kathy understandably mentioned, handing back the letter to Molly. "Let's just say Angela isn't the nicest sister out there. From what I heard, she's given Molly a hard time in the past. Not the sort of sister you'd expect to have after losing both of your parents."

Opening his mouth to say something, Chase closed it again as he couldn't think of what to say. That last line had hit him. _Hard. _Ever since the night Molly had told him about losing her parents, he'd classed her as lucky for having a sister to grieve with - unlike him who was stuck in an orphanage which nothing but bullies and other children who had completely shut out the world to keep him company. But now, hearing that line from Kathy made him completely rethink his previous thoughts and emotions, knowing that Molly was pretty much in the same position as he was made him angry. Angry at knowing that she had a sister which could have helped her, to make things less hard on her. That's what sisters were supposed to do, right? The idea that this 'Angela' had caused her even more pain made him feel a type of rage which he hadn't felt before.

One thing was definitely for sure, he was not going to make things easy for Angela when she arrived.

* * *

><p>Aww I love Angela so much, I feel bad for making her the bad guy. :c (But I love Maya more so...sorry Angela! I just couldn't bring myself to make Maya bad, which would have been more logical, I guess.)<p>

So...I had two different endings for this chapter, and I couldn't decide on which one to use. . 'Part two' so to speak, will explain more about Angela since I'm hoping that your curious about what she's like and what she did to Molly now. xD (Ohhh and the second ending which I was thinking off will be put to use in another later chapter.)

I'm not going to harass you about it, but reviews do make this feel appreciated/liked. :c


	14. Chapter 14

Man, I am sorry about how long this update has taken! Since it's summer, My Dad took some time off, so I was spending time with him and my brother, since I don't really get to spend too much time with them a lot, because of their jobs. (I mainly just spend summer having girly days with my Mum haha...) anywho, I am sorry, and this chapter is a little short and maybe slightly fillerish, but I hope you enjoy it anyways.

* * *

><p>Chase didn't know what to do.<p>

He had spent a good half hour on pacing back and forth in his kitchen, re-arranging knives, polishing pots, almost ANYTHING which he thought might help his inspiration even a little bit.

Sadly for him, none of this seemed to be working, which he realised when he dropped a newly sharpened knife, the pointed blade flashing as it missed his foot by mere inches. Sighing as he stooped down to pick it up, he wiped the dust off before setting it back to its original place, to be left there until needed again.

It had been a few hours since he returned home after witnessing the slight breakdown of his girlfriend, and the only reason why he left her side in the first place was because Kathy kicked him out. Pulling out a chair from his kitchen table, Chase plopped himself down in it, the old cushion releasing a small cloud of dust as he did so. Frowning, the chef reminded himself that he would have to beat them outside when it became warmer.

"What the hell..." he mumbled as his buried his head into his hands, as he tried to work out why Molly was so against the idea of her sister visiting. Obviously Kathy knew, so why wouldn't she tell him? It couldn't be that bad right? Letting out a sigh, he lifted his head up to glance at the clock, which told him that it was time he went and got some sleep. Smiling as he recalled buying the clock with the girl who was currently in such a state, he let out a small yawn before checking that every appliance which could be turned on in the kitchen was now safely off, before heading into his bedroom to try and get as much sleep as he would be allowed.

...If he knew that he would be woken up so early however, then he wouldn't have even bothered.

Rubbing his eyes as he was awoken by a knock on the door a short while later, the chef silently cursed to himself as he padded barefoot across the cold floorboards of his house, checking that he had something at the ready by the doorway if it happened to be an unwanted intruder. Why would burglars knock though? His thoughts clouded by sleepiness, he quickly unbolted the door and opened it a crack to get a look at who it was, before quickly wrenching it open the rest of the way and ushering the visitor inside.

"Molly!" he half yelled as he ran around in a full circle once, before deciding on what he needed to do. "Wait here." He gently said as he placed the shivering girl in the chair which he had been sitting on earlier, before running off to tear the blankets of his bed to give her some warmth.

"I...I'm sorry..." she said at his arrival, her face distorted like she was trying to hold back her crying again.

"No no...don't be...shuuush, it's alright..." he mumbled, fumbling around with the blanket, trying to wrap it around her as quickly as humanly possible. "the-" he began, but soon cut himself off and looked at the girl with a frown, who in turn looked back with a look of worry upon her face.

"What?" She whispered nervously, her eyes darting from his face back down to the blanket which he was mid way in giving to her.

"You should take your coat off."

"W-what?"

"You need to take your coat off Molly!" oblivious to the blunt way in which he had made the statement, Chase placed his hands on his hips expectantly, like a Mother waiting for her child to apologise after doing something it shouldn't have.

"But...I can't..."

"Why not? You do have clothes on underneath that right?"

"..."

"...Oh Molly." Dropping the blanket down in front on him, the now flustered young man turned his back to the girl, and disappeared into the bathroom, coming back a few seconds later with a fluffy dressing gown in toe.

"Here." He said casually as he threw it at her from across the room, "Take off your coat, put that on, then wrap the blanket around you...I'll...I'll just wait over here." Signalling with his hand to his bedroom next to him (In which the door was still open, due to his haste in finding something to warm the girl up with), he noticed the slight nodding of her head out of the corner of his eye as he turned to give her some privacy, refusing to make eye contact with her to prevent any more inappropriate mental images from flooding his mind.

Letting out a deep breath of air as he leant against the wall facing away from Molly, Chase closed his eyes as he tried to regain his composure - now was definitely NOT a good time to start going into pervy 'omg I wander what my girlfriend looks like naked' mode.

"Chase...?"

Jumping slightly at the sound of her voice in the otherwise silence, the man in question looked over to the side where he saw Molly now standing, her new appearance easing his thoughts slightly.

With the blanket pulled up to her neck, she looked a lot younger, Chase noticed, similar to a frightened child who was still afraid of the dark, or one in which a thunderstorm had interrupted their sleep. Shaking away a painful memory which entered his mind because of this, he quickly closed the gap between them and pulled her towards his bed, setting her down on the soft mattress before sitting down next to her, making sure to keep one arm securely around her as he did so.

"So?" he asked, like it didn't need any more questioning.

"I..." she began, before stopping and fidgeting around in the blanket. "I tried to sleep, but when I did I had a...a dream. Not a nightmare, exactly, but it still frightened me enough to stop me from going back to sleep afterwards." Looking up at Chase, she pressed her lips together tightly as she once again fought to hold herself back from crying. "And because I couldn't sleep, I just kept thinking about things, and now matter how hard I tried, my thoughts always went back to Angela, and how...how I know what she will do, and if I can't stop her then..." stopping again as she sniffed slightly, she placed her head against Chase's chest, who instinctively then wrapped his arms fully around her in a protective way.

"Slow down, Mol..." he whispered gently, before bringing one hand up to stroke her hair soothingly. "What is your sister going to do which is that bad? You know Kathy or Luke or me would never let her do anything to hurt you anyways, so you don't need to let her visit bug you so much."

Closing her eyes at his caresses, Molly also brought her hand up and placed it on the arm wrapped around her, slowly tracing patterns with her finger on the surprisingly smooth skin.

"You don't know Angela." She muttered after a few minutes of silence. "She finds some sick pleasure in causing tensions between people, and...and causing arguments, especially when she's jealous, or can't get her own way."

Stopping the movements with her finger, she opened her eyes once again and stared down, blinking a few times as her eyes tried to adjust to the darkness.

"I've never had many friends because of her. I only started making friends after I moved away from home, and even then I was still unsure of myself, because of the constant tormenting and insults which she used to throw at me...and..." Clutching his arm tightly, Molly bit down on her lip as she felt herself begin to cry again. "I just know that s-she's going to try and make you and Kathy and Luke and everyone else hate me...she'll act all nice, and then..." as the rest of her words became incoherent because of her crying, Molly gave in and moved to sit on a worried Chase's lap, throwing her arms around him tightly, and placing her head in the gap between his neck and shoulder.

Not being able to do anything else apart from comfort her and whisper endearments in her ear, Chase just held the fragile farmer whilst she cried, feeling the anger build up within him every second of which he heard Molly's sobs.

"I could never hate you Molly..." he began as her crying slowed down, "and I'll also make sure that that_ sister_ of yours doesn't manipulate anyone else into causing you anymore pain that she already seems to have put you through." Spitting out the word sister vehemently, Chase had to hold himself back from going on a complete rampage then and there, getting all instruments which could cause harm as he possibly could, and go wait at the harbour for this girl's arrival.

"I really do wish I could count on that..."

"Huh?"

"Oh no! It's not that I don't think you can do it!" waving her arms around behind his back as she tried to clear up her mistake, Molly stumbled around for the right words before finally deciding that it was hopeless - there were no more words to describe Angela, and no telling whether she had really changed like she had said she had or not. With that thought, she sighed and let herself fall back into her previous position, smiling as she smelt the clean, citrus like orange smell which clung to Chase's pyjamas.

"I'm sorry I caused so much fuss..." she muttered before letting out an audible yawn, snuggling down further into the sweet smelling clothes of her lover.

Chase couldn't help but smile as he looked down at her, tightening his grip around her petite body in order to tell her that everything was all right.

"Don't worry, I don't mind at all." He drowsily replied, only now realising how tired he was after the commotion had passed. "In fact, I'm kind of touched."

Lifting up her head in confusion, Molly looked straight at the smirk which adorned the man in front of hers face.

"And why's that?" she innocently asked, tilting her head to the side like a small, inquisitive puppy.

"Because, "he began, before bringing himself in closer "it shows that you were worried about losing me...now, I know you liked me, but I didn't realise it was so much. Next I'll find that you have a little shrine in your house with my pictures around it." Not giving her an immediate chance to react, Chase moved in and kissed her full on the lips, in which he didn't hear any objections too.

"Hey!" came the squeaked reply when the two finally had to pull away, with a hand shooting out of the wrap of blanket to take a playful swat at the man. "Don't get too cocky now..."

Smirking at the slightly brightened mood of Molly, Chase let himself fall back on the bed, Molly falling with him, letting out a small gasp as she landed half on him and half on the mattress.

"What?" he said as he pulled her back in closer, "you have my blanket."

With a smirk or her own, Molly pushed Chase off and unwrapped the blanket, before throwing it over the both of them again, snuggling up to him even closer in the process.

"Then I guess that we'll just have to share it, huh?"

"I don't mind that idea."

Letting out a small giggle as she closed her eyes, Molly whispered a small 'thank you' which was met with the arms around her squeezing her slightly in acknowledgement of the gratitude.

As she drifted to sleep, Molly couldn't help but feel slightly guilty about not telling Chase everything, but as she recalled the way in which he reacted to the first part of Angela's actions, she was pretty sure she didn't want him to know the real reason why she disliked her sister so much.

Not yet, at least.

* * *

><p>Yaaaay update at last. xD By the way, if I ever offend people, I want you to tell me, because I keep feeling like I have. ;<br>I knoooow that the romance isn't very good in the chapter and is kinda rushed/just slapped in there, but I didn't really think it was suitable to have a 'heeey lets eat each other's faces off!' after such a 'emotional' moment.  
>Haha...well thank you for reading this chapter! I'll try to get the next one up quicker. :3<p> 


End file.
